The Promised Land

"The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land." - W. E. B. Du Bois - The Souls of Black Folk 

It must have been very frustrating to be an African American in Du Bois's time.  Although the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War Amendments had given African Americans their freedom and their rights, most were still discriminated against and seen as second class citizens.  I can imagine that this new "freedom" was not as freeing as many were expecting.  

I really liked how Du Bois compared their lack of freedom to the Israelite's promised land.  Just as the African Americans did not get what they were expecting in their new freedom, the Israelite's promised land was not anything like they were anticipating either. When the Israelite's entered the land of Canaan, there was a massive famine taking place in the land - not exactly a land flowing with milk and honey. It took many years for the Israelite's to take over their promised land and as frustrating as it must have been for African Americans during the late eighteen hundreds and on, their sense of freedom was a slow process that took many years to come about; and some would say it is still not completely found today.