"The function of machinery is to modify the form or direction of impressed energy and to transmit it to the required points of application. The steam engine takes in fuel containing, in latent form, the stored up energy of past ages, and transforms it into power available for the uses and wants of man. You are animated machines--pieces of divine mechanism. You have taken in a good supply of knowledge which represents the stored up energy of all human experience. Your efficiency in life will depend upon your ability to transmit this energy to the place where it is needed, and to transform it into whatever mode of force may be necessary"   

-Kelly Miller (noted black scientist and intellectual a contemporary of Du Bois. proffesor at Howard University)