"we sight the Promised Land?..."See in text(VI. Of the Training of Black Men)
Du Bois argues that black peoples' education should include Western literature and culture, not just training for common labor. It is only through the cultivation of the mind, according to Du Bois, that African Americans can achieve the social regeneration that will lead to integration.
"From the double life every American Negro must live..."See in text(X. Of the Faith of the Fathers)
Du Bois considers the foundational significance of religion to African Americans, who are constantly caught in a double existence of slavery (as ex-slave) and freedom (as supposedly equal). The African American lives in different worlds: the modern world, the spiritual world, and the black world. Du Bois observes that, unlike white Americans, African Americans live in a state of confusion about their role in society—particularly because white Americans still haven't come to terms with that role, either.
"Would America have been America without her Negro people?..."See in text(XIV. Of the Sorrow Songs)
Du Bois rejects the widely-accepted role of African Americans in American social history—a role firmly placed in the context of slavery. Du Bois argues that neither race (black or white) can take full credit for making America what it is; instead, both races must accept the positive contribution African Americans have made to the history of the nation.
