The Artist Must Elect To Fight For

If The United States And The United Nations Truly Want Peace And Security Let Them Fulfill The Hopes Of The Common People Everywhere - Let Them Work Together To Accomplish On A Worldwide Scale, Precisely The Kind Of Democratic Association Of Free People Which Characterizes The Soviet Union Today.

Through The Years I Have Received My Share Of Recognition For Efforts In The Fields Of Sports, The Arts, The Struggle For Full Citizenship For The Negro People, Labor's Rights And The Fight For Peace.

Every Artist, Every Scientist, Every Writer Must Decide Now Where He Stands. The Artist Must Take Sides. He Must Elect To Fight For Freedom Or For Slavery. I Have Made My Choice. I Had No Alternative.

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.

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.