James Weldon Johnson

"I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle."

"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."

"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."

"The Southern whites are in many respects a great people. Looked at from a certain point of view, they are picturesque. If one will put oneself in a romantic frame of mind, one can admire their notions of chivalry and bravery and justice."