Page:The Souls of Black Folk (2nd ed).djvu/57



From birth till death enslaved; in word, in deed, unmanned!

Hereditary bondsmen! Know ye not

Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?

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ASILY the most striking thing in the history of the American Negro since 1876 is the ascendancy of Mr. Booker T. Washington. It began at the time when war memories and ideals were rapidly passing; a day of astonishing commercial development was dawning; a sense of doubt and hesitation overtook the freedmen's sons,—then it was that his leading began. Mr. Washington came, with a simple definite programme, at the psychological moment when the nation was a little ashamed of having bestowed so much sentiment on Negroes, and