A Classic Is A Book That Doesn't

The History Of The American Negro Is The History Of This Strife, - This Longing To Attain Self-conscious Manhood, To Merge His Double Self Into A Better And Truer Self. In This Merging He Wishes Neither Of The Older Selves To Be Lost... He Simply Wishes To Make It Possible For A Man To Be Both A Negro And An American.

Today I See More Clearly Than Yesterday That The Back Of The Problem Of Race And Color Lies A Greater Problem Which Both Obscures And Implements It: And That Is The Fact That So Many Civilized Persons Are Willing To Live In Comfort Even If The Price Of This Is Poverty, Ignorance, And Disease Of The Majority Of Their Fellow Men.

Would America Have Been America Without Her Negro People?

Cannot The Nation That Has Absorbed Ten Million Foreigners Into Its Political Life Without Catastrophe Absorb Ten Million Negro Americans Into That Same Political Life At Less Cost Than Their Unjust And Illegal Exclusion Will Involve?

Herein Lies The Tragedy Of The Age: Not That Men Are Poor, - All Men Know Something Of Poverty. Not That Men Are Wicked, - Who Is Good? Not That Men Are Ignorant, - What Is Truth? Nay, But That Men Know So Little Of Men.