James Weldon Johnson

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

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.

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.

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

I have a naturally camp sensibility and a camp sense of humour. I love the icons that gay people love.