W.E.B. Du Bois: “The Valley of the Shadow of Death gives few of its pilgrims back to the world.”

Away back in the days of bondage they thought to see in one divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment; few men ever worshipped Freedom with half such unquestioning faith as did the American Negro for two centuries.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land.

They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at…