Political Quotes

W.E.B. Du Bois: “What is the least sum that will keep the average youth out of jail?”

On the record
What is the least sum that will keep the average youth out of jail?
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois

Editor's note · Context

Du Bois poses a provocative question about the cost of education versus the cost of incarceration, highlighting societal priorities.

Share

More from W.E.B. Du Bois

Jan 1, 1903

If somewhere in this whirl and chaos of things there dwells Eternal Good, pitiful yet masterful, then anon in His good time America shall rend the Veil and the prisoned shall go free.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

Actively we have woven ourselves with the very warp and woof of this nation,—we fought their battles, shared their sorrow, mingled our blood with theirs, and generation after generation have pleaded with a headstrong, careless people to…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

Would America have been America without her Negro people?

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins.

gutenberg.org