This United States Government should go down to Mississippi and protect my people. That is what should happen.

The talents of an artist, small or great, are God-given. They've nothing to do with the private person; they're nothing to be proud of. They're just a sacred trust... Having been given, I must give. Man shall not live by bread alone, and what the farmer does I must do. I must feed the people - with my songs.

The artist must elect to fight for Freedom or for Slavery.

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.

The man who accepts Western values absolutely, finds his creative faculties becoming so warped and stunted that he is almost completely dependent on external satisfactions, and the moment he becomes frustrated in his search for these, he begins to develop neurotic symptoms, to feel that life is not worth living, and, in chronic cases, to take his own life.

The course of history can be changed but not halted.

My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you.