On Mastering One’s Self

The main thing is the YOU beneath the clothes and skin–the ability to do, the will to conquer, the determination to understand and know this great, wonderful, curious world….Enjoy what is and do not pine for what is not…Take yourself in hand and master yourself. Make yourself do unpleasant things, so as to gain the upper hand of your soul.

W.E.B. Du Bois, Fisk University 1888, to his fourteen year old daughter, Yolande

Yolande Du Bois (Fisk ’26) on the occasion of her wedding to poet Countee Cullen on April 9, 1928. One author dubbed the elaborate wedding “the single most important event of the Harlem Renaissance.”
SHARE
Previous articleBreastfeeding Builds Children, Families and Communities
Next articleOn Freedom
Crystal A. deGregory, Ph.D.
http://www.crystaldegregory.com
Dr. Crystal A. deGregory is a historian, storyteller, and convener whose work centers the power of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the lives of Black women and girls. She is the founder of HBCUstory and editor-in-chief of The Journal of HBCU Research + Culture, as well as Founding Director of the Mary McLeod Bethune Institute for the Study of Women and Girls at Bethune-Cookman University. A trusted architect of public history and cultural memory, she created the Bethune at 150 Syllabus and convened the 2025 Southern Association for Women Historians Triennial Meeting, where she was named the organization’s first-ever Honorary Lifetime Member. Through her forthcoming platform Her Due, deGregory advances overdue recognition for women’s labor, leadership, and legacy. Known for transforming history into strategy, she builds spaces where scholarship fuels equity, culture, and community. Follow her @HBCUstorian.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

LEAVE A REPLY