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text is about anxiously awaiting the coming of Christ, matic music.
drawing a parallel between that event and the arrival The penultimate movement (“I Believe in Liberty”)
of a world free of racial discrimination. The gospel trio introduces the baritone soloist, accompanied by chug-
is violently interrupted in the movement’s middle sec- ging piano music evoking the railroad in DuBois’s text:
tion, which sets DuBois’s angry condemnation of war a metaphor for the progress of social justice. Bonds’s
as a vehicle of White oppression to appropriately dra- music here is inexorable and inevitable in pursuing that

“Credo” by W. E. B. DuBois
Preface to: Darkwater, Voices from within the Veil
Originally published by Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York (1920)
Available for reprint via eBook under Project Gutenberg (2005)

I believe in God, who made of one blood all nations that on earth do dwell. I believe that all men, black and
brown and white, are brothers, varying through time and opportunity, in form and gift and feature, but differing in no
essential particular, and alike in soul and the possibility of infinite development.
Especially do I believe in the Negro Race: in the beauty of its genius, the sweetness of its soul, and its strength
in that meekness which shall yet inherit this turbulent earth.
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.
I believe in Service—humble, reverent service, from the blackening of boots to the whitening of souls; for Work is
Heaven, Idleness Hell, and Wage is the “Well done!” of the Master, who summoned all them that labor and are heavy
laden, making no distinction between the black, sweating cotton hands of Georgia and the first families of Virginia,
since all distinction not based on deed is devilish and not divine.
I believe in the Devil and his angels, who wantonly work to narrow the opportunity of struggling human be-
ings, especially if they be black; who spit in the faces of the fallen, strike them that cannot strike again, believe the
worst and work to prove it, hating the image which their Maker stamped on a brother’s soul.
I believe in the Prince of Peace. I believe that War is Murder. I believe that armies and navies are at bottom the
tinsel and braggadocio of oppression and wrong, and I believe that the wicked conquest of weaker and darker nations
by nations whiter and stronger but foreshadows the death of that strength.
I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls, the right to breathe and the right
to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; think-
ing, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love.

I believe in the Training of Children, black even as white; the leading out of little souls into the green pastures
and beside the still waters, not for pelf or peace, but for life lit by some large vision of beauty and goodness and truth;
lest we forget, and the sons of the fathers, like Esau, for mere meat barter their birthright in a mighty nation.
Finally, I believe in Patience—patience with the weakness of the Weak and the strength of the Strong, the preju-
dice of the Ignorant and the ignorance of the Blind; patience with the tardy triumph of Joy and the mad chastening
of Sorrow.

CHORAL JOURNAL November/December 2025 Volume 66 Number 4 9