It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.

Nothing great or enduring, especially in music, has ever sprung full-fledged and unprecedented from the brain of any master; the best he gives to the world he gathers from the hearts of the people, and runs it through the alembic of his genius.

There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it.

It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.

Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies; Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

In the life of everyone there is a limited number of experiences which are not written upon the memory, but stamped there with a die; and in the long years after, they can be called up in detail, and every emotion that was stirred by them can be lived through anew; these are the tragedies of life.

The colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.