James Weldon Johnson Quotes & Sayings

Shortly after this I was made a member of the boys' choir, it being found that I possessed a clear, strong soprano voice. I enjoyed the singing very much. — James Weldon Johnson

My boy, you are by blood, by appearance, by education, and by tastes a white man. Now, why do you want to throw your life away amidst the poverty and ignorance, in the hopeless struggle, of the black people of the United States? — James Weldon Johnson

You are young, gifted, and Black. We must begin to tell our young, There's a world waiting for you, Yours is the quest that's just begun. — James Weldon Johnson

My mother was kept very busy with her sewing; sometimes she would have another woman helping her. — James Weldon Johnson

It's no disgrace to be black, but it's often very inconvenient. — James Weldon Johnson

In spite of the bans which musicians and music teachers have placed on it, the people still demand and enjoy Ragtime. — James Weldon Johnson

I had enjoyed life in Paris, and, taking all things into consideration, enjoyed it wholesomely. — James Weldon Johnson

So God stepped over to the edge of the world And He spat out the seven seas; He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed; He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled; And the waters above the earth came down, The cooling waters came down. — James Weldon Johnson

As I look back now I can see that I was a perfect little aristocrat. — James Weldon Johnson

Listen!--- Listen!
All you sons of Pharaoh.
Who do you think can hold God's people
when the Lord God himself has said,
Let my people go? — James Weldon Johnson

Southern white people despise the Negro as a race, and will do nothing to aid in his elevation as such; but for certain individuals they have a strong affection, and are helpful to them in many ways. — James Weldon Johnson

My love for my children makes me glad that I am what I am, and keeps me from desiring to be otherwise; and yet, when I sometimes open a little box in which I still keep my fast yellowing manuscripts, the only tangible remnants of a vanished dream, a dead ambition, a sacrificed talent, I cannot repress the thought, that after all I have chosen the lesser part, that I have sold my birthright for a mess of pottage — James Weldon Johnson

For days I could talk of nothing else with my mother except my ambitions to be a great man, a great colored man, to reflect credit on the race and gain fame for myself. — James Weldon Johnson

With his head in his hands, God thought and thought, Till he thought: I'll make me a man! — James Weldon Johnson

Can you imagine," he went on to say, "what would have been the condition of things eventually if there had been no war, and the South had been allowed to follow its course? Instead of one great, prosperous country with nothing before it but the conquests of peace, a score of petty republics, as in Central and South America, wasting their energies in war with each other pr om revolutions. — James Weldon Johnson

Northern white people love the Negro in a sort of abstract way, as a race; through a sense of justice, charity, and philanthropy, they will liberally assist in his elevation. — James Weldon Johnson

When we arrived in London, my sadness at leaving Paris was turned into despair. After my long stay in the French capital, huge, ponderous, massive London seemed to me as ugly a thing as man could contrive to make. — James Weldon Johnson

Evil is a force and, like the physical and chemical forces, we cannot annihilate it; we may only change its form. We light upon one evil and hit it with all the might of our civilization, but only succeed in scattering it into a dozen of other forms — James Weldon Johnson

My appearance was always good and my ability to play on the piano, especially ragtime, which was then at the height of its vogue, made me a welcome guest. — James Weldon Johnson

The Awakening

I dreamed that I was a rose
That grew beside a lonely way,
Close by a path none ever chose,
And there I lingered day by day.
Beneath the sunshine and the show'r
I grew and waited there apart,
Gathering perfume hour by hour,
And storing it within my heart,
Yet, never knew,
Just why I waited there and grew.

I dreamed that you were a bee
That one day gaily flew along,
You came across the hedge to me,
And sang a soft, love-burdened song.
You brushed my petals with a kiss,
I woke to gladness with a start,
And yielded up to you in bliss
The treasured fragrance of my heart;
And then I knew
That I had waited there for you. — James Weldon Johnson

It is a struggle; for though the white man of the South may be too proud to admit it, he is, nevertheless, using in the contest his best energies; he is devoting to it the greater part of his thought and much of his endeavor. — James Weldon Johnson

And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books. — James Weldon Johnson

I am a thing not new, I am as old As human nature. I am that which lurks, Ready to spring whenever a bar is loosed; The ancient trait which fights incessantly Against restraint, balks at the upward climb; The weight forever seeking to obey The law of downward pull; and I am more: The bitter fruit am I of planted seed; The resultant, the inevitable end Of evil forces and the powers of wrong. — James Weldon Johnson

My luck at the gambling table was varied; sometimes I was fifty to a hundred dollars ahead, and at other times I had to borrow money from my fellow workmen to settle my room rent and pay for my meals. — James Weldon Johnson

It is strange how in some things honest people can be dishonest without the slightest compunction. — James Weldon Johnson

Paris practices its sins as lightly as it does its religion, while London practices both very seriously. — James Weldon Johnson

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered. — James Weldon Johnson

New York City is the most fatally fascinating thing in America. She sits like a great witch at the gate of the country, showing her alluring white face, and hiding her crooked hands and feet under the folds of her wide garments,
constantly enticing thousands from far within, and tempting those who come from across the seas to go no farther. And all these become the victims of her caprice. Some she at once crushes beneath her cruel feet; others she condemns to a fate like that of galley slaves; a few she favors and fondles, riding them high on the bubbles of fortune; then with a sudden breath she blows the bubbles out and laughs mockingly as she watches them fall. — James Weldon Johnson

Young man, young man, your arm's too short to box with God. — James Weldon Johnson

Through my music teaching and my not absolutely irregular attendance at church, I became acquainted with the best class of colored people in Jacksonville. — James Weldon Johnson

Can you name a single one of the great fundamental and original intellectual achievements which have raise man in the scale of civilization that may be credited to the Anglo-Saxon? The art of letters, of poetry, of music, of sculpture, of painting, of the drama, of architecture; the science of mathematics, of astronomy, of philosophy, of logic, of physics, of chemistry, the use of the metals and principles of mechanics, were all invented or discovered by darker and what we now call inferior races and nations. — James Weldon Johnson

It is the spirit of the South to defend everything belonging to it. The North is too cosmopolitan and tolerant for such a spirit. — James Weldon Johnson

And God stepped out on space, and He looked around and said: I'm lonely - I'll make me a world. — James Weldon Johnson

Some men enjoy the constant strife Of days with work and worry rife, But that is not my dream of life: I think such men are crazy. For me, a life with worries few, A job of nothing much to do, Just pelf enough to see me through: I fear that I am lazy. — James Weldon Johnson

American musicians, instead of investigating ragtime, attempt to ignore it, or dismiss it with a contemptuous word. But that has always been the course of scholasticism in every branch of art. Whatever new thing the 'people' like is poohpoohed; whatever is 'popular' is spoken of as not worth the while. The fact is, nothing great or enduring, especially in music, has ever sprung full-fledged and unprecedented from the brain of any master; the best that he gives to the world he gathers from the hearts of the people, and runs it through the alembic of his genius. — James Weldon Johnson

Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies; Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. — James Weldon Johnson

Music is a universal art; anybody's music belongs to everybody; you can't limit it to race or country. — James Weldon Johnson

The final measure of the greatness of all peoples is the amount and standard of the literature and art they have produced. The world does not know that a people is great until that people produces great literature and art. No people that has produced great literature and art has ever been looked upon by the world as distinctly inferior. — James Weldon Johnson

O black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire? — James Weldon Johnson

I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race; but that I would change my name, raise a mustache, and let the world take me for what it would; that it was not necessary for me to go about with a label of inferiority pasted across my forehead. — James Weldon Johnson

I do not see how a people that can find in its conscience any excuse whatever for slowly burning to death a human being, or for tolerating such an act, can be entrusted with the salvation of a race. — James Weldon Johnson

I know the South claims that it has spent millions for the education of the blacks, and that it has of its own free will shouldered this awful burden. It seems to be forgetful of the fact that these millions have been taken from the public tax funds for education, and that the law of political economy which recognizes the land owner as the one who really pays the taxes is not tenable. It would be just as reasonable for the relatively few land owners of Manhattan to complain that they had to stand the financial burden of the education of the thousands and thousands of children whose parents pay rent for tenements and flats. Let the millions of producing and consuming Negroes be taken out of the South, and it would be quickly seen how much less of public funds there would be to appropriate for education or any other purpose. — James Weldon Johnson

Lift every voice and sing. — James Weldon Johnson

In an astonishingly short time I reached the point where the language taught itself - where I learned to speak merely by speaking. This point is the place which students taught foreign languages in our schools and colleges find great difficulty in reaching. I think the main trouble is that they learn too much of a language at a time. A French child with a vocabulary of two hundred words can express more spoken ideas than a student of French can with a knowledge of two thousand. — James Weldon Johnson

I believe it to be a fact that the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them. — James Weldon Johnson

Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst. — James Weldon Johnson

As I grew older, my love for reading grew stronger. I read with studious interest everything I could find relating to colored men who had gained prominence. My heroes had been King David, then Robert the Bruce; now Frederick Douglass was enshrined in the place of honor. — James Weldon Johnson

Any musical person who has never heard a Negro congregation under the spell of religious fervor sing these old songs has missed one of the most thrilling emotions which the human heart may experience. — James Weldon Johnson

This Great God, Like a mammy bending over her baby, Kneeled down in the dust Toiling over a lump of clay Till He shaped it in His own image. — James Weldon Johnson

She was my first love, and I loved her as only a boy loves. — James Weldon Johnson

As yet, the Negroes themselves do not fully appreciate these old slave songs. — James Weldon Johnson

A space was quickly cleared in the crowd, and a rope placed about his neck, when from somewhere came the suggestion, "Burn him!" It ran like an electric current. Have you ever witnessed the transformation of human beings into savage beasts? Nothing can be more terrible. — James Weldon Johnson

When one has seen something of the world and human nature, one must conclude, after all, that between people in like stations of life there is very little difference the world over. — James Weldon Johnson

Make yourself as happy as possible, and try to make those happy whose lives come in touch with yours. But to attempt to right the wrongs and cease the sufferings of the world in general is a waste of effort. — James Weldon Johnson

Amsterdam was a great surprise to me. I had always thought of Venice as the city of canals; it had never entered my mind that I should find similar conditions in a Dutch town. — James Weldon Johnson

In Berlin I especially enjoyed the orchestral concerts, and I attended a large number of them. I formed the acquaintance of a good many musicians, several of whom spoke of my playing in high terms. — James Weldon Johnson

But the more she talked, the less was I reassured, and I stopped her by asking: "Well, mother, am I white? Are you white?" She answered tremblingly: "No, I am not white, but you - your father is one of the greatest men in the country - the best blood of the South is in you - " This suddenly opened up in my heart a fresh chasm of misgiving and fear, — James Weldon Johnson

Washington shows the Negro not only at his best, but also at his worst. — James Weldon Johnson

The fortress inspired a tremendous confidence. It was the only propeller driven aircraft I have flown that was completely viceless; there were no undesirable flight characteristics. The directional stability was excellent and, properly trimmed, the B-17 could be taken off, landed and banked without change of trim. — James Weldon Johnson

Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune. — James Weldon Johnson

And Satan smiled, stretched out his hand, and said, O War, of all the scourges of humanity, I crown you chief. — James Weldon Johnson

In the life of everyone there is a limited number of experiences which are not written upon the memory, but stamped there with a die; and in the long years after, they can be called up in detail, and every emotion that was stirred by them can be lived through anew; these are the tragedies of life. — James Weldon Johnson

I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle. — James Weldon Johnson

But I must own that I also felt stirred by an unselfish desire to voice all the joys and sorrows, the hopes and ambitions, of the American Negro, in classic musical form. — James Weldon Johnson

A great wave of humiliation and shame swept over me. Shame that I belonged to a race that could be so dealt with; and shame for my country, that it, the great example of democracy to the world, should be the only civilized, if not the only state on earth, where a human being would be burned alive. — James Weldon Johnson

Americans are immensely popular in Paris; and this is not due solely to the fact that they spend lots of money there, for they spend just as much or more in London, and in the latter city they are merely tolerated because they do spend. — James Weldon Johnson

It is a struggle; for though the black man fights passively, he nevertheless fights; and his passive resistance is more effective at present than active resistance could possibly be. He bears the fury of the storm as does the willow tree. — James Weldon Johnson

It may be because Southerners are very much like Frenchmen in that they must talk; and not only must they talk, but they must express their opinions. — James Weldon Johnson

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. — James Weldon Johnson

I found cause to wonder upon what ground the English accuse Americans of corrupting the language by introducing slang words. I think I heard more and more different kinds of slang during my few weeks' stay in London than in my whole "tenderloin" life in New York. But I suppose the English feel that the language is theirs, and that they may do with it as they please without at the same time allowing that privilege to others. — James Weldon Johnson

I felt leap within me pride that I was colored; and I began to form wild dreams of bringing glory and honor to the Negro race. — James Weldon Johnson

I have since learned that this ability to laugh heartily is, in part, the salvation of the American Negro; it does much to keep him from going the way of the Indian. — James Weldon Johnson

I'm lonely I'll make me a world. — James Weldon Johnson

This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen. — James Weldon Johnson

[R]acial supremacy is merely a matter of dates in history. — James Weldon Johnson

Whose starboard eye
Saw chariot 'swing low'? — James Weldon Johnson

It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive character. — James Weldon Johnson

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. — James Weldon Johnson

At a very early age I began to thump on the piano alone, and it was not long before I was able to pick out a few tunes? I also learned the names of the notes in both clefs, but I preferred not be hampered by notes. — James Weldon Johnson

I lived to learn that in the world of sport all men win alike, but lose differently; — James Weldon Johnson

I was at the same time impressed with the falsity of the general idea that Frenchmen are excitable and emotional, and that Germans are calm and phlegmatic. Frenchmen are merely gay and never overwhelmed by their emotions. When they talk loud and fast, it is merely talk, while Germans get worked up and red in the face when sustaining an opinion, and in heated discussions are likely to allow their emotions to sweep them off their feet. — James Weldon Johnson

And this is the dwarfing, warping, distorting influence which operates upon each and every colored man in the United States. He is forced to take his outlook on all things, not from the viewpoint of a citizen, or a man, or even a human being, but from the viewpoint of a colored man. It is wonderful to me that the race has progressed so broadly as it has, since most of its thought and all of its activity must run through the narrow neck of this one funnel — James Weldon Johnson

There were two immediate results of my forced loneliness: I began to find company in books, and greater pleasure in music. — James Weldon Johnson

But if the Negro is so distinctly inferior, it is a strange thing to me that it takes such tremendous effort on the part of the white man to make him realize it, and to keep him in the same place into which inferior men naturally fall. — James Weldon Johnson

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. — James Weldon Johnson

There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it. — James Weldon Johnson

New York had impressed me as a place where there was lots of money and not much difficulty in getting it. — James Weldon Johnson