W.E.B. Du Bois: “Many people assume that it was corruption that made such aristocracies fail.”

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…

This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand thousand people,—has sent them often wooing false gods and invoking false means of…

The direct result of this system is an all-cotton scheme of agriculture and the continued bankruptcy of the tenant.

The form and disposition of the laborers’ cabins throughout the Black Belt is to-day the same as in slavery days.