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.

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.

Sex was a pleasurable form of exercise, like dancing.

The old Catholic parties hounded me with a Christian hatred from station to station, city to city, one stage to another.

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.

The secret to the fountain of youth is to think youthful thoughts.

We've got to show that blacks and whites are treated equally in the army. Otherwise, what's the point of waging war on Hitler?