No people can go forward when the majority of those who should know better have chosen to go backward, but this is exactly what most of our mis-leaders do. Not being learned in the history and background of the[ir] race, they figure out that there is no hope for the masses; and they decide, then, that the best thing they can do is to exploit these people for all they can and use the accumulations selfishly. Such persons have no vision and therefore perish at their own hands.
It is an injustice to the Negro, however, to mis-educate him and suffer his manners to be corrupted from infancy unto old age and then blame him for making the mistakes which such guidance necessitates. "People who have been restricted and held down naturally condescend to the lower levels of delinquency. When education has been entirely neglected or improperly managed we see the worst passions ruling with uncontrolled and incessant sway.
- Woodson, Carter.The Mis-Education of the Negro. Washington: Associated Publishers, 1933.
