• As you read the source, take notes on how the person in the source thought
African Americans should fight for their rights.
• Copy down any quotes you find helpful or may want to use in your paper
W.E.B Dubois
in source "W.E.B. Du bois"
Important Facts -
How did he fight for African American equality?
Helpful quotes for your paper?
W.E.B. Du Bois believed that African Americans should fight for their rights through education, legal challenges, and political activism.
Helpful quotes for your paper:
1. "The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the best of this race that they may guide the mass away from the contamination and death of the worst, in their own and other races."
- This quote highlights Du Bois' emphasis on the importance of education for African Americans, particularly for the "Talented Tenth" who would lead and uplift their race.
2. "We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt complaint, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong—this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty, and we must follow it."
- Du Bois emphasizes the importance of complaining and criticizing the injustices faced by African Americans. He advocates for continuous agitation and exposure of dishonesty to achieve liberty and equality.
3. "Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait."
- This quote reflects Du Bois' call for African Americans to be proactive and persistent in their fight for their rights. It emphasizes the need for determination and patience in achieving their goals.
4. "Negroes will not be free until they have achieved political power, the ballot, and control of their own schools"
- Du Bois stresses the importance of political power and the right to vote for African Americans as essential for achieving true freedom and control over their own education.
5. "We want full manhood suffrage, and we want it now, henceforth and forever."
- This quote emphasizes Du Bois' demand for immediate and permanent suffrage rights for African Americans.
6. "In America democracy is a lie. You have cast your burden on the Negroes and want to go free."
- Du Bois here exposes the hypocrisy of democracy in America, arguing that African Americans are burdened with inequality while others enjoy freedom. This quote highlights the need for equal rights and treatment for all Americans.