I spent 30 minutes each morning rubbing my body with half a lemon to lighten my skin.

I believe if the white and colored people could get together and be let alone, they would understand each other and consequently love each other.

...It looked very different from the Statue of Liberty, but what did that matter? What was the good of having the statue without the liberty, the freedom to go where one chose if one was held back by one's color? No, I preferred the Eiffel Tower, which made no promises." ~ Josephine Baker, once she had seen the Eiffel Tower

You are on the eve of a complete victory. You can't go wrong. The world is behind you.

Friends, to me for years St. Louis represented a city of fear... humiliation... misery and terror... A city where in the eyes of the white man a Negro should know his place and had better stay in it.

The hate directed against the colored people here in St. Louis has always given me a sad feeling... How can you expect the world to believe in you and respect your preaching of democracy when you yourself treat your colored brothers as you do?

Art is an elastic sort of love.