Despair Quote by 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

Nothing great or enduring, especially in music, has ever sprung full-fledged and unprecedented from the brain of any master; the best he gives to…

— 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…

— James Weldon Johnson

A people may become great through many means, but there is only one measure by which its greatness is recognized and acknowledged. The final…

— 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…

— 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…

— James Weldon Johnson

Young man, young man, your arm's too short to box with God.

— James Weldon Johnson

Shortly after this I was made a member of the boys choir, it being found that I possessed a clear, strong soprano voice. I…

— James Weldon Johnson

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

— 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…

— James Weldon Johnson

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

— 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