Life For Me Ain't Been No Crystal

But There Are Certain Very Practical Things American Negro Writers Can Do. And Must Do. There's A Song That Says, "the Time Ain't Long." That Song Is Right. Something Has Got To Change In America-and Change Soon. We Must Help That Change To Come.

This Morning I Paid Seventy Cents For Two Little Old Dried-up Slivers Of Bacon And One Cockeyed Egg. It Took Me Till Noon To Get My Appetite Back.

We Build Our Temples For Tomorrow, Strong As We Know How, And We Stand On Top Of The Mountain, Free Within Ourselves.

We Younger Negro Artists Who Create Now Intend To Express Our Individual Dark-skinned Selves Without Fear Or Shame. If White People Are Pleased We Are Glad. If They Aren?t It Doesn?t Matter.

When A Man Starts Out To Build A World, He Starts First With Himself