On the recordJanuary 1, 1903
He heard the hateful clank of their chains; he felt them cringe and grovel, and there rose within him a protest and a prophecy.
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois
Source
gutenberg.orgW.E.B. Du Bois: “He heard the hateful clank of their chains; he felt them cringe and grovel, and there rose within him a protest and a…”
Editor's note · Context
From a chapter reflecting on his early life and education, this describes the awakening of his sense of mission in response to the suffering of his people.
Share
More from W.E.B. Du Bois
Jan 1, 1903
Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people,—a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a…
Jan 1, 1903
With other black boys the strife was not so fiercely sunny: their youth shrunk into tasteless sycophancy, or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white; or wasted itself in a bitter cry, Why…
Jan 1, 1903
The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku-Klux Klan, the lies of carpet-baggers, the disorganization of industry, and the contradictory advice of friends and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for…
Jan 1, 1903
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.