Racism Quotes by W.E.B. Du Bois

13 Racism quotes by W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B. Du Bois offers a compact set of 13 reflections on racism, each line packed with the intellectual rigor that defined his legacy. Though brief, these excerpts give a solid glimpse into his enduring critique of racial injustice.

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“He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“The opposition to Negro education in the South was at first bitter, and showed itself in ashes, insult, and blood; for the…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“was at first bitter, and showed itself in ashes, insult, and blood; for the South believed an educated Negro to be a…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“Even to-day the masses of the Negroes see all too clearly the anomalies of their position and the moral crookedness of yours.…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“The South believed an educated Negro to be a dangerous Negro. And the South was not wholly wrong; for education among all…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“In a world where it means so much to take a man by the hand and sit beside him, to look frankly…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“The worlds within and without the Veil of Color are changing, and changing rapidly, but not at the same rate, not in…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“They do not expect that the free right to vote, to enjoy civic rights, and to be educated, will come in a…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“It is not enough for the Negroes to declare that color-prejudice is the sole cause of their social condition, nor for the…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,—a world which…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“Today even the attitude of the Southern whites toward the blacks is not, as so many assume, in all cases the same;…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“Again, we may decry the color-prejudice of the South, yet it remains a heavy fact. Such curious kinks of the human mind…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“Now it happens that both master and man have just enough argument on their respective sides to make it difficult for them…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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More by W.E.B. Du Bois

“The South believed an educated Negro to be a dangerous Negro. And the South was not wholly wrong; for education among all kinds of…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“So flagrant became the political scandals that reputable men began to leave politics alone, and politics consequently became disreputable. Men began to pride themselves…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“A university is a human invention for the transmission of knowledge and culture from generation to generation, through the training of quick minds and…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“A resistless feeling of depression falls slowly upon us, despite the gaudy sunshine and the green cotton-fields. This, then, is the Cotton Kingdom--the shadow…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“All life long crying without avail, As the water all night long is crying to me.”

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“Again, we may decry the color-prejudice of the South, yet it remains a heavy fact. Such curious kinks of the human mind exist and…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“Lo! we are diseased and dying, cried the dark hosts; we cannot write, our voting is vain; what need of education, since we must…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“Not a single Southern legislature stood ready to admit a Negro, under any conditions, to the polls; not a single Southern legislature believed free…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“I sit with Shakespeare, and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm and arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another.”

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“Thus it is doubly difficult to write of this period calmly, so intense was the feeling, so mighty the human passions that swayed and…

W.E.B. Du Bois

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“perhaps, having already reached conclusions in our own minds, we are loth to have them disturbed by facts.”

W.E.B. Du Bois

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