Political Quotes

W.E.B. Du Bois: In the history of nearly all other races and peoples the doctrine preached at such crises has been that manly…

On the recordJanuary 1, 1903
In the history of nearly all other races and peoples the doctrine preached at such crises has been that manly self-respect is worth more than lands and houses, and that a people who voluntarily surrender such respect, or cease striving for it, are not worth civilizing.
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois

Editor's note · Context

This passage from "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others" argues for the historical importance of self-respect in the face of oppression.

Share

More from W.E.B. Du Bois

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…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

All this segregation by color is largely independent of that natural clustering by social grades common to all communities.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

gutenberg.org