Here at last seemed to have been discovered the mountain path to Canaan; longer than the highway of Emancipation and law, steep and rugged, but straight, leading to heights high enough to overlook life.
From his seminal work, this passage metaphorically describes education as a challenging but direct path to a higher understanding and a more complete life, akin to the biblical promised land.
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More from W.E.B. Du Bois
He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world.
All this segregation by color is largely independent of that natural clustering by social grades common to all communities.
He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.