Was he ahead of his time? Was he prescient? Was he a prophet? Certainly, he was brilliant, and his scintillating writing continues to grab a reader's attention to this day.
Some of us yet hope, that as the generations slide by with the years, that some of the old and rigid insensitive attitudes will fade into distant memory. Even as the idea of a flat earth has fallen from favor and use (if not into complete obscurity), so too may the notions that race or skin color in any way indicate worth, ability or even a difference.
Here are a few notable W.E.B. Du Bois quotes:
“I believe that all men, black, brown, and white, are brothers.”
“Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.”
“What do nations care about the cost of war, if by spending a few hundred millions in steel and gunpowder they can gain a thousand millions in diamonds and cocoa?”
“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.”
~ Three African-American Classics: up from Slavery, the Souls of Black Folk and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
~ Three African-American Classics: up from Slavery, the Souls of Black Folk and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Here's to hoping the people of the world can rise above superficial differences to a more united future. United We Stand, and all that good stuff.
We're excited to offer this handsome first edition of The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois, in addition to other books of his writings.
