The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois
page 54 of 255 (21%)
page 54 of 255 (21%)
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1. The right to vote. 2. Civic equality. 3. The education of youth according to ability. They acknowledge Mr. Washington's invaluable service in counselling patience and courtesy in such demands; they do not ask that ignorant black men vote when ignorant whites are debarred, or that any reasonable restrictions in the suffrage should not be applied; they know that the low social level of the mass of the race is responsible for much discrimination against it, but they also know, and the nation knows, that relentless color-prejudice is more often a cause than a result of the Negro's degradation; they seek the abatement of this relic of barbarism, and not its systematic encouragement and pampering by all agencies of social power from the Associ- ated Press to the Church of Christ. They advocate, with Mr. Washington, a broad system of Negro common schools sup- plemented by thorough industrial training; but they are sur- prised that a man of Mr. Washington's insight cannot see that no such educational system ever has rested or can rest on any other basis than that of the well-equipped college and univer- sity, and they insist that there is a demand for a few such institutions throughout the South to train the best of the Negro youth as teachers, professional men, and leaders. This group of men honor Mr. Washington for his attitude of conciliation toward the white South; they accept the "At- lanta Compromise" in its broadest interpretation; they recog- |
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