W.E.B. Du BoisThinkers

Art is not simply works of art... it is the spirit that knows beauty, that has music in its soul and the color of sunsets in its headkerchiefs... that can dance on a flaming world and make the world dance, too.

China is omitted from histories of the world, though it invented the compass, movable type, and gunpowder.

The Church is an institution which defended such evils as slavery, color caste, exploitation of labor and war.

The Color line is the relations between lighter and darker races which, du bois believed, would become 'the problem of the 20th century'.

Crime is most harmful to a community because of the danger of the young being trained to crime.

Democracy is not a theory grounded in the idea that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience.

Democracy's soul is the opportunity for 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.

Disfranchisement is the deliberate theft and robbery of the only protection of poor against rich and black against white.

Double-consciousness is the experience of the black man who must always look at one's self through the eyes of others, who must always measure one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.

Double-consciousness is the predicament of the American negro whereby he is endowed with two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings... two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.