Freedom Is A Hard-bought Thing.

In The Early Days Of My Carer As An Actor, I Shared What Was Then The Prevailing Attitude Of Negro Performers :;that The Content And Form Of A Play Or A Film Scenario Was Of Little Importance To Us. What Mattered Was Was The Opportunity, Which Came So Seldom To Our Folks ... Later I Came To Understand That The Negro Artist Could Not View The Matter Simply In Terms Of Of His Individual Interests, And That He Had A Responsibility To His People Who Rightfully Resented The Traditional Stereotyped Portrayals Of Negros On Stage And Screen.

Yes, I Heard My People Singing!-in The Glow Of Parlor Coal-stove And On Summer Porches Sweet With Lilac Air, From Choir Loft And Sunday Morning Pews-and My Soul Was Filled With Their Harmonies. Then, Too, I Heard These Songs In The Very Sermons Of My Father, For In The Negro's Speech There Is Much Of The Phrasing And Rhythms Of Folk-song. The Great, Soaring Gospels We Love Are Merely Sermons That Are Sung; And As We Thrill To Such Gifted Gospel Singers As Mahalia Jackson, We Hear The Rhythmic Eloquence Of Our Preachers, So Many Of Whom, Like My Father, Are Masters Of Poetic Speech.

The Faces And The Tactics Of The Leaders May Change Every Four Years, Or Two, Or One, But The People Go On Forever.

You Want To Shut Up Every Negro Who Has The Courage To Stand Up And Fight For The Rights Of His People, For The Rights Of Workers, And I Have Been On Many A Picket Line For The Steelworkers Too.

If The United States And The United Nations Truly Want Peace And Security Let Them Fulfill The Hopes Of The Common People Everywhere - Let Them Work Together To Accomplish On A Worldwide Scale, Precisely The Kind Of Democratic Association Of Free People Which Characterizes The Soviet Union Today.