America never was America to me And yet I swear this oath - America will be!

Beauty for some provides escape, who gain a happiness in eyeing the gorgeous buttocks of the ape or Autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.

A dream deferred is a dream denied.

These feet have walked ten thousand miles working for white folks and another ten thousand keeping up with colored.

The calm, Cool face of the river, Asked me for a kiss

Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home.

There is no color line in death. I swear to the lord I still can't see Why Democracy means Everybody but me. O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath - America will be! I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.