W.E.B. Du Bois: “Above the thunder I hearkened; Beneath the silence, now,-- I hear!”

So long as the world stands meekly dumb before such questions, shall this nation proclaim its ignorance and unhallowed prejudices by denying freedom of opportunity to those who brought the Sorrow Songs to the Seats of the Mighty?

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.

Would America have been America without her Negro people?

Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood.