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.

With Othello, Shakespeare posed this problem of a black man in a white society in the role that he's playing. And Shakespeare gave Othello such dignity - he came not from - as he said - not from hate but from honor, from a sense of his own human dignity. And to me, to my mind, there could be no greater character played.

Every artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands. The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.

Freedom is a hard-bought thing.

And, gentlemen, they have not yet done so, and it is quite clear that no Americans, no people in the world probably, are going to war with the Soviet Union.

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

We [must] realize that our future lies chiefly in our own hands.