You Want To Shut Up Every Negro

The Talents Of An Artist, Small Or Great, Are God-given. They've Nothing To Do With The Private Person; They're Nothing To Be Proud Of. They're Just A Sacred Trust... Having Been Given, I Must Give. Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone, And What The Farmer Does I Must Do. I Must Feed The People - With My Songs.

With Othello, Shakespeare Posed This Problem Of A Black Man In A White Society In The Role That He's Playing. And Shakespeare Gave Othello Such Dignity - He Came Not From - As He Said - Not From Hate But From Honor, From A Sense Of His Own Human Dignity. And To Me, To My Mind, There Could Be No Greater Character Played.

I Did A Long Concert Tour In England And Denmark And Sweden, And I Also Sang For The Soviet People, One Of The Finest Musical Audiences In The World.

The Patter Of Their Feet As They Walk Through Jim Crow Barriers To Attend School Is The Thunder Of The Marching Men Of Joshua, And The World Rocks Beneath Their Tread.

In The Early Days Of My Carer As An Actor, I Shared What Was Then The Prevailing Attitude Of Negro Performers :;that The Content And Form Of A Play Or A Film Scenario Was Of Little Importance To Us. What Mattered Was Was The Opportunity, Which Came So Seldom To Our Folks ... Later I Came To Understand That The Negro Artist Could Not View The Matter Simply In Terms Of Of His Individual Interests, And That He Had A Responsibility To His People Who Rightfully Resented The Traditional Stereotyped Portrayals Of Negros On Stage And Screen.