“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.”
Other James Weldon Johnson Quotes
It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive character.
James Weldon Johnson 
60% of people like this quote
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 
56% of people like this quote
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 
55% of people like this quote
Young man, young man, your arm's too short to box with God.
James Weldon Johnson 
54% of people like this quote
