"They got up and went to the back of the car. It was an insult. But it was not a surprise. They had seen it before."

"I am not a Negro. I am a human being."

"Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me."

"The highest heaven of Negro expression is to be found in the Negro church."

"I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature so…"