No American can study the connection of slavery with United States history, and not devoutly pray that his country may never have a similar social problem to solve, until it shows more capacity for such work than it has shown in the past.
Du Bois warns against the historical lessons of slavery, urging Americans to learn from the past to avoid similar social issues.
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The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him.
The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land.
He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world.
The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the…