For education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent. - W. E. B. Du Bois

The white economic and political elite often failed to recognize blacks as American, just as blacks often failed to recognize their potential for advancement outside of the limited opportunities afforded them by whites.

Not even ten additional years of slavery could have done so much to throttle the thrift of the freedmen as the mismanagement and bankruptcy of the series of savings banks chartered by the Nation for their especial aid.

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