The position of my white neighbor is much more difficult. . . . The game of keeping what one has is never so exciting as the game of getting.
—ZORA NEALE HURSTON, FROM “HOW IT FEELS TO BE COLORED ME,” WORLD TOMORROW (1928)
One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. . . . The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect men and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth.
—W. E. B. DU BOIS, FROM BLACK RECONSTRUCTION (1935)