Young man, young man, your arm's too short to box with God.
From James Weldon Johnson
The Southern whites are in many respects a great people. Looked at from a certain point of view, they are picturesque. If one will put oneself in a romantic frame of mind, one can admire their notions of chivalry and bravery and justice.
In Berlin I especially enjoyed the orchestral concerts, and I attended a large number of them. I formed the acquaintance of a good many musicians, several of whom spoke of my playing in high terms.
I do not see how a people that can find in its conscience any excuse whatever for slowly burning to death a human being, or for tolerating such an act, can be entrusted with the salvation of a race.
I believe it to be a fact that the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.
As yet, the Negroes themselves do not fully appreciate these old slave songs.
It is a struggle; for though the black man fights passively, he nevertheless fights; and his passive resistance is more effective at present than active resistance could possibly be. He bears the fury of the storm as does the willow tree.
Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune.
You are young, gifted, and Black. We must begin to tell our young, There's a world waiting for you, Yours is the quest that's just begun.
She was my first love, and I loved her as only a boy loves.
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