I'm not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that.

I believe in prayer. It's the best way we have to draw strength from heaven.

The white imagination is sure something when it comes to blacks.

My people have a country of their own to go to if they choose... Africa... but, this America belongs to them just as much as it does to any of the white race... in some ways even more so, because they gave the sweat of their brow and their blood in slavery so that many parts of America could become prosperous and recognized in the world.

Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.

All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.

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.