William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American sociologist, socialist, historian and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Du Bois had risen to national prominence as a leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. His cause included people of color everywhere, particularly Africans and Asians in colonies. Du Bois was a prolific author. His collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, is a seminal work in African-American literature; and his 1935 magnum opus, Black Reconstruction in America, challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction Era.
As a scholar, Du Bois helped invent the field of Sociology as we know it today. Du Bois took a trip around the world in 1936, which included visits to Nazi Germany, China, and Japan. Du Bois was a lifelong anti-war activist, but his efforts became more pronounced after World War II. In 1959, Du Bois was awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize by the USSR. The Study of the Negro Problems, John Brown: A Biography, Black Reconstruction in America, Dark Princess: A Romance are some of his most notable works.
This is a collection of Du Bois Quotes on civil rights, liberty, and education.
Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader, and fuller life. W. E. B. Du Bois
There is no force equal to a woman determined to rise. W. E. B. Du Bois
The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery? W. E. B. Du Bois
A true and worthy ideal frees and uplifts a people; a false ideal imprisons and lowers. W. E. B. Du Bois
The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery. W. E. B. Du Bois
Strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities. W. E. B. Du Bois
Men must not only know, they must act. W. E. B. Du Bois
Whiteness is ownership of the earth. W. E. B. Du Bois
Liberty trains for liberty. Responsibility is the first step in responsibility. W. E. B. Du Bois
A little less complaint and whining, and a little more dogged work and manly striving, would do us more credit than a thousand civil rights bills. W. E. B. Du Bois
There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know. W. E. B. Du Bois
Ignorance is a cure for nothing. W. E. B. Du Bois
It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. W. E. B. Du Bois
To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships. W. E. B. Du Bois
We shall never secure emancipation from the tyranny of the white oppressor until we have achieved it in our own souls. W. E. B. Du Bois
As Negro voting increased, Congress got an improved sense of hearing. W. E. B. Du Bois
Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction. W. E. B. Du Bois
To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships. W. E. B. Du Bois
Education and work are the levers to uplift a people. W. E. B. Du Bois
Make yourself do unpleasant things so as to gain the upper hand of your soul. W. E. B. Du Bois
Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched,- criticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those led, - this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society. W. E. B. Du Bois
The cause of war is preparation for war. W. E. B. Du Bois
It is the stars, it is the ancient stars, it is the young and everlasting stars! W. E. B. Du Bois
The kind of sermon which is preached in most colored churches is not today attractive to even fairly intelligent men. W. E. B. Du Bois
Most men today cannot conceive of a freedom that does not involve somebody's slavery. W. E. B. Du Bois
A classic is a book that doesn't have to be written again. W. E. B. Du Bois
Read some good, heavy, serious books just for discipline: Take yourself in hand and master yourself. W. E. B. Du Bois
North as well as South, the Negroes have emerged from slavery into a serfdom of poverty and restricted rights. W. E. B. Du Bois
To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word. W. E. B. Du Bois
Education must not simply teach work - it must teach Life. W. E. B. Du Bois
The future woman must have a life work and economic independence. She must have the right of motherhood at her own discretion. W. E. B. Du Bois
It is as though nature must needs make men narrow in order to give them force. W. E. B. Du Bois
You are not and yet you are: your thoughts, your deeds, above all your dreams still live. W. E. B. Du Bois
The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line. W. E. B. Du Bois
I am an earnest advocate of manual training and trade teaching for black boys, and for white boys, too. W. E. B. Du Bois
Rule-following, legal precedence, and political consistency are not more important than right, justice and plain common-sense. W. E. B. Du Bois
No universal selfishness can bring social good to all. W. E. B. Du Bois
Most men in this world are colored. A belief in humanity means a belief in colored men. The future world will, in all reasonable probability, be what colored men make it. W. E. B. Du Bois
Race prejudice decreases values, both real estate and human. W. E. B. Du Bois
The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression. W. E. B. Du Bois
Children learn more from what you are than what you teach. W. E. B. Du Bois
I believe in pride of race and lineage and self; in pride of self so deep as to scorn injustice to other selves. W. E. B. Du Bois
The return from your work must be the satisfaction which that work brings you and the world’s need of that work. With this, life is heaven, or as near heaven as you can get. W. E. B. Du Bois
The price of culture is a lie. W. E. B. Du Bois
A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect. W. E. B. Du Bois
Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States. W. E. B. Du Bois
There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know. W. E. B. Du Bois
A man does not look behind the door unless he has stood there himself. W. E. B. Du Bois
The world is shrinking together; it is finding itself neighbor to itself in strange, almost magic degree. W. E. B. Du Bois
To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires. W. E. B. Du Bois
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