W.E.B. Du Bois: “Thus did the United States government definitely assume charge of the emancipated Negro as the ward of the nation.”

But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins.

The silently growing assumption of this age is that the probation of races is past, and that the backward races of to-day are of proven inefficiency and not worth the saving.

Around us the history of the land has centred for thrice a hundred years; out of the nation’s heart we have called all that was best to throttle and subdue all that was worst; fire and blood, prayer and sacrifice, have billowed over this…

Let the ears of a guilty people tingle with truth, and seventy millions sigh for the righteousness which exalteth nations, in this drear day when human brotherhood is mockery and a snare.