In my music, my plays, my films, I want to carry always this central idea: to be African.

The course of history can be changed but not halted.

Artists are the gate keepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.

And at home in the United States we found continued and increased persecution, first of leaders of the Communist Party, and then of all honest anti-fascists.

Through the years I have received my share of recognition for efforts in the fields of sports, the arts, the struggle for full citizenship for the Negro people, labor's rights and the fight for peace.

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

The intolerance of the few, or the risk of it, carries the day against the wider humanity of the many.