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.

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.

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

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.

My style is Edie Sedgwick meets Grace Jones, or Audrey Hepburn meets Salt 'n' Pepa. Strong and feisty but still classic.

My first career ambitions involved turning into a boy; I intended to be either a railway guard or a knight errant.