I am being tried for fighting for the right of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America.

As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this.

I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom

We ask for nothing that is not ours by right, and herein lies the great moral power of our demand.

In Russia I felt for the first time like a full human being. No color prejudice like in Mississippi, no color prejudice like in Washington. It was the first time I felt like a human being.

Freedom is a hard-bought thing and millions are in chains, but they strain toward the new day drawing near.

Could I say that the reason that I am here today, you know, from the mouth of the State Department itself, is: I should not be allowed to travel because I have struggled for years for the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa.