To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.

The destiny of the colored American ... is the destiny of America.

Actively we have woven ourselves with the very warp and woof of this nation-we have fought their battles, shared their sorrow, mingled our blood with theirs, and generation after generation have pleaded with a headstrong, careless people to despise not Justice, Mercy and Truth, lest the nation be smitten with a curse. Our song, our toil, our cheer and warning have been given to this nation in blood brotherhood. Are not these gifts worth the giving? Is not this worth the striving? Would America have been America without her Negro People?

Not only does his Americanism compel the Negro to strive to improve his own status by demanding the rights that are his. It also gives him, as it gives to others committed to the ideals set forth in the American dream, a burning desire to make the system work.

To be a Negro in America is to hope against hope.

After four hundred years of slave labor, we have some back pay coming, a bill owed to us that must be collected.

During the next half-century or more, my race must continue passing through the severe American crucible. We are to be tested in our patience, our forbearance, our perseverance, our power to endure wrong, to withstand temptations, to economize, to acquire and use skill; our ability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard the superficial for the real, the appearance for the substance, to be great and yet small, learned and yet simple, high and yet the servant of all. This, this is the passport to all that is best in the life of our Republic, and the Negro must possess it, or be debarred.