On the recordJanuary 1, 1903
The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defence,—else what shall save us from a second slavery?
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois
Source
gutenberg.orgW.E.B. Du Bois: “The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defence,—else what shall save us from a second slavery?”
Editor's note · Context
In his foundational text, Du Bois asserts the critical importance of the right to vote as a defense against renewed subjugation for African Americans.
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Jan 1, 1903
Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.
Jan 1, 1903
Away with the black man’s ballot, by force or fraud,—and behold the suicide of a race!
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Years have passed away since then,—ten, twenty, forty; forty years of national life, forty years of renewal and development, and yet the swarthy spectre sits in its accustomed seat at the Nation’s feast.
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In song and exhortation swelled one refrain—Liberty; in his tears and curses the God he implored had Freedom in his right hand.