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I believe in Pride of race and lineage and self: in pride of self so deep as to scorn injustice to other selves; in pride of lineage so great as to despise no man's father; in pride of race so chivalrous as neither to offer bastardy to the weak nor beg wedlock of the strong, knowing that men may be brothers in Christ, even though they be not brothers-in-law.
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“I believe in Pride of race and lineage and self: in pride of self so deep as to scorn injustice to other selves; in pride of lineage so great as to despise no man's father; in pride of race so chivalrous as neither to offer bastardy to the weak nor beg wedlock of the strong, knowing that men may be brothers in Christ, even though they be not brothers-in-law.”

W. E. B. Du Bois

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Source
Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil
Date
1920
Meaning

Meaning of “I believe in Pride of race and lineage…”

Du Bois connects self-respect with respect for other people, making dignity incompatible with accepting injustice toward either oneself or another group.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Darkwater, “Credo.” The passage uses Du Bois’s period language of race and lineage within a broader declaration of human brotherhood, service, justice and liberty.

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Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

Be YourselfFreedomHumanityIdentityIndependenceLoveSelf LoveSelf RelianceSelf TrustSelf-Respect Quotes About Dignity & BoundariesSelf-WorthDignityHistoryPride
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“A certain kind of self-respect or native pride is necessary to a good life.”

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Meaning & context

Russell treats a durable sense of inward worth as necessary for living without surrendering completely to defeat, pressure or external judgment.

Source details

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I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not.
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“I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not.”

W. E. B. Du Bois · The Souls of Black Folk · 1903
Meaning & context

Du Bois refuses the premise that racial exclusion determines intellectual belonging: in the world of culture and thought he claims equal access to Shakespeare and other major writers without asking permission from the color line.

Source details

The Souls of Black Folk, “Of the Training of Black Men,” Project Gutenberg #408. The sentence opens a longer passage in which Du Bois moves “across the color line” among Shakespeare, Balzac, Dumas, Aristotle and Marcus Aurelius; the context is Black cultural and intellectual dignity under segregation.

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I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.
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“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.”

Charlotte Brontë · Jane Eyre · 1847
Voice: Fictional character · Jane Eyre
Meaning & context

The speaker refuses a relationship defined by captivity or unequal power and asserts freedom, dignity, and the right to choose.

Source details

Jane Eyre; Jane insists on moral and personal independence during a decisive conversation with Rochester.

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The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is the individuality of each human soul.
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“The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is the individuality of each human soul.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton · Solitude of Self · 1892
Meaning & context

Stanton begins from individual personhood before social roles, arguing that each human being has a distinct moral and civic existence that cannot be reduced to relationship status.

Source details

Solitude of Self, address delivered January 18, 1892; exact full-text witness reviewed on Wikisource. Stanton opens her central argument by shifting from familiar suffrage claims to 'the individuality of each human soul,' grounding political and educational equality in individual conscience, citizenship and responsibility rather than generic self-help.

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Only the Black Woman can say “when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me.”
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“Only the Black Woman can say “when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me.””

Anna Julia Cooper · A Voice from the South · 1892
Meaning & context

Cooper makes dignified self-possession politically consequential: the Black woman enters public life without begging special patronage, while her advance is framed as inseparable from broader racial progress.

Source details

A Voice from the South, “Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race,” Project Gutenberg #61741 / Wikisource 1892 text. The sentence belongs to Cooper's Black feminist argument about representation, education and racial uplift; it is not a generic claim that one individual literally represents every Black person.

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We believe that the second great step toward a better adjustment of the relations between races, should be a more impartial selection of ability in the economic and intellectual world, and a greater respect for personal liberty and worth, regardless of race.
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“We believe that the second great step toward a better adjustment of the relations between races, should be a more impartial selection of ability in the economic and intellectual world, and a greater respect for personal liberty and worth, regardless of race.”

W. E. B. Du Bois · The Conservation of Races · 1897
Meaning & context

Du Bois connects fair recognition of ability with personal liberty and worth, arguing that racial identity should not erase an individual’s claim to equitable consideration.

Source details

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