Words matter. These are the best James Weldon Johnson Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Young man, young man, your arm’s too short to box with God.
There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it.
I believe it to be a fact that the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.
Shortly after this I was made a member of the boys’ choir, it being found that I possessed a clear, strong soprano voice. I enjoyed the singing very much.
My appearance was always good and my ability to play on the piano, especially ragtime, which was then at the height of its vogue, made me a welcome guest.
Any musical person who has never heard a Negro congregation under the spell of religious fervor sing these old songs has missed one of the most thrilling emotions which the human heart may experience.
When we arrived in London, my sadness at leaving Paris was turned into despair. After my long stay in the French capital, huge, ponderous, massive London seemed to me as ugly a thing as man could contrive to make.
Washington shows the Negro not only at his best, but also at his worst.
The battle was first waged over the right of the Negro to be classed as a human being with a soul; later, as to whether he had sufficient intellect to master even the rudiments of learning; and today it is being fought out over his social recognition.
My luck at the gambling table was varied; sometimes I was fifty to a hundred dollars ahead, and at other times I had to borrow money from my fellow workmen to settle my room rent and pay for my meals.
I had enjoyed life in Paris, and, taking all things into consideration, enjoyed it wholesomely.
The peculiar fascination which the South held over my imagination and my limited capital decided me in favor of Atlanta University; so about the last of September I bade farewell to the friends and scenes of my boyhood and boarded a train for the South.
It is a struggle; for though the black man fights passively, he nevertheless fights; and his passive resistance is more effective at present than active resistance could possibly be. He bears the fury of the storm as does the willow tree.
In Berlin I especially enjoyed the orchestral concerts, and I attended a large number of them. I formed the acquaintance of a good many musicians, several of whom spoke of my playing in high terms.
And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.
As I look back now I can see that I was a perfect little aristocrat.
My mother was kept very busy with her sewing; sometimes she would have another woman helping her.
