I named all my children after flowers. There's Lillie and Rose and my son, Artificial.
Bert WilliamsA black face, run-down shoes and elbow-out make-up give me a place to hide. The real Bert Williams is crouched deep down inside the coon who sings the songs and tells the stories.
Bert WilliamsI have never been able to discover anything disgraceful in being a colored man. But I have often found it inconvenient - in America.
Bert WilliamsPeople sometimes ask me if I would not give anything to be white, I answer, in the words of the song, most emphatically, 'No.' How do I know what I might be if I were a white man? I might be a sand-hog, burrowing away and losing my health for $8 a day. I might be a street-car conductor at $12 or $15 a week. There is many a white man less fortunate and less well equipped than I am. In fact, I have never been able to discover that there was anything disgraceful in being a colored man. But I have often found it inconvenient - in America.
Bert Williams