Progress?

In his book Souls of Black Folk (chapter IV), W.E.B. DuBois ponders the meaning of Progress in America by using his life experience as a young teacher in Black, rural Tennessee.

He starts with realizing his own educational privilege and how very hard/ almost impossible task it was to get out of extreme poverty and illiteracy caused by Jim Crow racism and government policies:

"If you wish to proclaim your power...send out your angels, the immortal, the pure ones, who are unsentimental and do not weep! Do not choose a delicate and tender soul.

In chapter IV he discusses his lifelong love and relationship with his former school and students and how Progress looked (after 10 years) for his former/ their community.

DuBois was perplexed by American Progress because in this community it only represented an increased love of capitalism and decreased freedoms...some more land, a "better" job, a little more money, increased family debt, a boarded up school, families dying from hard work, KKK violence, and strife, the Jim Crow section, etc.

But, he still finds life and love in all of it!


"How hard a thing life to the lowly, and yet how human and real!  And all this life and love and strife and failure...is it the twilight of nightfall or the flush of some faint-dawning day?"


These are the words I am trying to share with friends as we consider election day and beyond...


This is a new day and our journey toward true progress has only just begun, let's do it with life and love (and action)!