I Been Through Living For Years. I

I Hold That Any Religion That Satisfies The Individual Urge Is Valid For That Person.

If You Haven't Got It, You Can't Show It. If You Have Got It, You Can't Hide It.

There Is Something About Poverty That Smells Like Death. Dead Dreams Dropping Off The Heart Like Leaves In A Dry Season And Rotting Around The Feet; Impulses Smothered Too Long In The Fetid Air Of Underground Caves. The Soul Lives In Sickly Air. People Can Be Slaveships In Shoes.

It Costs You Something To Do Good!

I Maintain That I Have Been A Negro Three Times--a Negro Baby, A Negro Girl And A Negro Woman. Still, If You Have Received No Clear Cut Impression Of What The Negro In America Is Like, Then You Are In The Same Place With Me. There Is No The Negro Here. Our Lives Are So Diversified, Internal Attitudes So Varied, Appearances And Capabilities So Different, That There Is No Possible Classification So Catholic That It Will Cover Us All, Except My People! My People!