The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, - this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost... He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American.

The most ordinary Negro is a distinct gentleman, but it takes extraordinary training and opportunity to make the average white man anything but a hog.

If you want to feel humor too exquisite and subtle for translation, sit invisibly among a gang of Negro workers.

A man does not look behind the door unless he has stood there himself

Men must not only know, they must act.

Today I see more clearly than yesterday that the back of the problem of race and color lies a greater problem which both obscures and implements it: and that is the fact that so many civilized persons are willing to live in comfort even if the price of this is poverty, ignorance, and disease of the majority of their fellow men.

Harriet Tubman fought American slavery single handed and was a pioneer in that organized effort known as the Underground Railroad.