Washington came, with a simple definite programme, at the psychological moment when the nation was a little ashamed of having bestowed so much sentiment on Negroes, and was concentrating its energies on Dollars.
Du Bois critiques Booker T. Washington's rise, noting how his program aligned with the nation's shift from Reconstruction ideals to commercial interests.
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More from W.E.B. Du Bois
After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness…
The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land.
But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them.
Through history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness.