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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
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W. E. B. Du Bois
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Man
Hardships
Poor
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The Negro was freed and turned loose as a penniless, landless, naked, ignorant laborer. Ninety-nine per cent were field hands and servants of the lowest class.

The discovery of personal whiteness among the world's peoples is a very modern thing - a nineteenth and twentieth century matter, indeed. The ancient world would have laughed at such a distinction.

Strange, is it not, my brothers, how often in America those great watchwords of human energy - 'Be strong!' 'Know thyself!' 'Hitch your wagon to a star!' - how often these die away into dim whispers when we face these seething millions of black men? And yet do they not belong to them? Are they not their heritage as well as yours?

The power of the ballot we need in sheer defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?

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.

I believe in the Prince of Peace. I believe that War is Murder. I believe that armies and navies are at bottom the tinsel and braggadocio of oppression and wrong, and I believe that the wicked conquest of weaker and darker nations by nations whiter and stronger but foreshadows the death of that strength.

I am a Bolshevik.

For fifteen years, I was a teacher of youth. They were years out of the fullness and bloom of my younger manhood. They were years mingled of half breathless work, of anxious self-questionings, of planning and replanning, of disillusion, or mounting wonder.

I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls, the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love.

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To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.