Quotes, Sayings, References (QSRs)

ANDERSON, MARIAN

1. First Quote (Marian Anderson)

"I have always steered clear of modern music. One has to acquire a taste for it the same as with caviar" (Jet, 12/23/54, p16

ARTISTRY

James Weldon Johnson gave a talk at the turn of the century, and, of all the things he said, the thing that captivated his audience was hi statement that" the only things artistic in America that have sprung from American soil, permeated American life, and been universally acknowledged as distinctively American, had been the creations of the American Negro. "Book of American Negro Poetry" 327

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BURLEIGH, HARRY T.

1. First quote (Harry T. Burleigh)

"I hope to make my greatest reputation as an arranger of Negro spirituals. In them my race has pure goal and they should be taken as the Negro's contribution to art."
Opportunity magazine. May, 1924, p155

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EQUALITY (RACIAL)

1. First Quote (Rabbi Stephen S. Wise)

Here's a quote from a Rabbi who attended a Freedom Rally that was held at Madison Square Gardens (New York) in June of 1944.

"The Jewish people do not want for themselves anything that is denied to other people" Rabbi Stephen S. Wise

Printed in Peope's Voice, 7/1/44, p2

2. Percival Prattis

Percival Prattis, editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, said about America that in order to stop the bloodbaths (lynchings) it's time that America got religion on the issue of racial equality. QUOTED from a speech made in Charleston, WV, February 1944, Box 29, File, 18 Percival Prattis Papers, Manuscript Division, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, DC.

Note: Percival Prattis was on the Board of Directors of the National Negro Opera Company.
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BUSINESS

1. First Quote

"Three or four first-rate restaurants in a Negro district are preferable to a multitude of "greasy vest" lunch rooms filled with smoke and disagreeable fumes. It is natural, of course, that the organization of such associations should start with the grocery stores because of the greater competition to which they are subjected, but the time is coming when all of our businesses will have to follow their example if they would continue in existance" (See also: Economics)

---Statement printed in the Pittsburgh Courier in an article about the Colored Merchants Association, Pitts C, 8/10/29 (edit page)

2. Second Quote

"If you take care of your community, the community will take care of you"

--Statement printed in the Pittsburgh Courier (11/9/29, 2/2). Statement made by R.L. McDougald of the Mechanics and Farmers Bank (Durham, NC) at an Annual meeting of the National Negro Bankers Association. The meeting was held in Washington, DC.

CARMICHAEL, STOKELY

Black people have nothing to lose by talking to each other. (Quoted in the St. Petersburg Times, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19721115&id=z5wMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-l8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7139,4791284)
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COLTRANE, JOHN

1. Statement 1. John said that the artist had the highest calling for the forces of good and love in society, and that all he wanted to do with his music was to create good.

2. Statement 2. Trane felt that the artist had a moral responsibility through his art. In that, he was unlike the be-bop musicians who rarely got involved with things outside their music.

ECONOMICS

1. First Quote

"It is tragic waste to have, for instance, twenty mediocre barber shops barely struggling along when eight or ten good ones could make plenty of money"

(A statement made by the Pittsburgh Courier -8/10/29 (edit page)

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JIMCRO

La Julia Rhea had this to say about segregation. The article I'm quoting from is in my "Amateur Hour" Notebook (R-Z), under her name (listed in the "R")

1. Statement 1 (Segregation prevented Rea Parad LaJulia Rhea) operatic star of Major Edward Bowes' Amateur Ensemble No. 2 from singing to audiences in the south) She said: "I'd consider it a slur and an insult to my race to sing on stages in Southern cities if I had to ride Jim Crow trains to get to my destination.

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JOLSON, AL

1. First statement

.....Says he's terrible on the screen, Pitts C, 9/25/25 (2/2)

JOHNSON, JAMES WELDON

JWJ once said, the situation in which they (Blacks) were might have seemed hopeless, but they themselves were not without hope. The patent proof of this ws their ability to sing and to laugh: "Book of Negro Poetry" , 120

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LOCKE, ALAIN

1. First Quote (Alain Locke). Pitts C, 11/24/34 (8/2). Criticizes black artists, saying that they are "asleep on their heritage" "Masters of Music are few"

"It is time to realize that though we may be a musical people, we have produced few if any grate musicians --that though we (have) potentiality, it has not yet been integrated into a music traditions... with a few exceptions, the master of Negro musicial idioms so far are not Negro".

2. Second Quote: (Alaine Locke). People's Voice, 8/26/44, p27/ Dr. Alaine Locke in a talk at Hampton, urged that the NAACP change its name to "The National Association for the Advancement of American Democracy"

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MILLER/LYLES

1. First quote. taken from an article published in the Pittsburgh Courier, 5/22/26, p10, entitled "Miller/Lyles Hope for Theatre Devoted To Negro" (are trying to interest white capital in project of Broadway playhouse as well as wealthy race men and women).

"I believe that the needs of our race and a better understand of us would be broadcast through such a theater"
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MORAL RESPONSIBILITY

1. Statement 1. John Coltrane said that the artist had the highest calling for the forces of good and love in society, and that all he wanted to do with his music was to create good.

2. Statement 2. John Coltrane felt that the artist had a moral responsibility through his art. In that, he was unlike the be-bop musicians who rarely got involved with things outside their music.

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MUSIC

1. First Quote (Marian Anderson)

Marian Anderson said, in "Jet" magazine (12/23/54, p16), "I have always steered clear of modern music. One has to acquire a taste for it the same as with caviar"

2. Second Quote (Harrison Ferrell)

Harrison Ferrell, Director of the Ferrell Symphony Orchestra, said that his is the only negro symphony orchestra in the world that plays classical music exclusively. He quoted Robert Louis Stevenson's "Inland Voyage" when giving an interview and expressing his views about music. He said, "You will recall that Robert Louis Stevenson in AN INLAND VOYAGE told of the Belgian boat club whose members said --by day we work in a bank, but in the evening we are serious" He goes on to say that "it is no disparagement of the workmanship of our musicians as steel workers and shoemakers by day to say that in the evening, when playing symphonies, they ware serious" ----Chic Def, 1/21/28, p5

3. Third Quote (William L. Dawson -the musician)

William L. Dawson explained his first Negro symphony (Pitts C, 11/24/34 (8/2):

"It is not religious, but classical, in the modern idiom. It is melancholy, a type of theme related to jazz in its rhythm. It is an attempt to develop Negro music, something they said again and again could not be developed. I made up my mind four years ago to stop talking myself and let others do the talking. Ever since I have been writing the music."

4. Fourth Quote. (William L. Dawson- the musician)

"I have never doubted the possibility of our music, for I feel that buried in the South is music that somebody some day will discover. They will make another great music out of the folksongs of the South. I feel from the bottom of my heart that it will rank one day with the music of Brahms and Russian composers". William L. Dawson talks about his "Negro Folk Symphony" (Pitts C, 11/24/34 (8/2)

5. Fifth Quote (William L. Dawson- The musician)

Wiliam L. Dawson replies to his accusers who says that his Negro Folk Symphony is plagarized: "Negro composers must stop aping white writers and simply put forth the thing that rises up with them without thinking of the popular reception it will receive" Pitts C, 11/24/34 (8/2)

6. Sixth Quote (William L. Dawson -the musician)

Dvorak used Negro idioms.... Pitts C, 11/24/34 (8/2)

7. Seventh Quote (Alain Locke). Pitts C, 11/24/34 (8/2). Criticizes black artists, saying that they are "asleep on their heritage" "Masters of Music are few"

"It is time to realize that though we may be a musical people, we have produced few if any grate musicians --that though we (have) potentiality, it has not yet been integrated into a music traditions... with a few exceptions, the master of Negro musicial idioms so far are not Negro".

8. Eighth quote (Harry T. Burleigh)

"I hope to make my greatest reputation as an arranger of Negro spirituals. In them my race has pure goal and they should be taken as the Negro's contribution to art."
Opportunity magazine. May, 1924, p155

9. James W Johnson once said, the situation in which they (Blacks) were might have seemed hopeless, but they themselves were not without hope. The patent proof of this was their ability to sing and to laugh: "Book of Negro Poetry" , 120

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NAACP

1. First Quote: (Alaine Locke). People's Voice, 8/26/44, p27/ Dr. Alaine Locke in a talk at Hampton, urged that the NAACP change its name to "The National Association for the Advancement of American Democracy"

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PRATTIS, PERCIVAL

1. First Quote (Percival Prattis)

Percival Prattis, editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, said about America that in order to stop the bloodbaths (lynchings) it's time that America got religion on the issue of racial equality. QUOTED from a speech made in Charleston, WV, February 1944, Box 29, File, 18 Percival Prattis Papers, Manuscript Division, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, DC.

Note: Percival Prattis was on the Board of Directors of the National Negro Opera Company.

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PROCRASTINATION

1. First quote (Lawrence Winters)

......If you put off for tomorrow what you should do today, there probably will be a higher tax on it. Jet 1/3/52, p14
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RACIAL EQUALITY

1. First Quote (Percival Prattis)

Percival Prattis, editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, said about America that in order to stop the bloodbaths (lynchings) it's time that America got religion on the issue of racial equality. QUOTED from a speech made in Charleston, WV, February 1944, Box 29, File, 18 Percival Prattis Papers, Manuscript Division, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, DC.

Note: Percival Prattis was on the Board of Directors of the National Negro Opera Company.

2. Second Quote (Rabbi Stephen S. Wise)

Here's a quote from a Rabbi who attended a Freedom Rally that was held at Madison Square Gardens (New York) in June of 1944.

"The Jewish people do not want for themselves anything that is denied to other people" Rabbi Stephen S. Wise


3. Third quote (Harry T. Burleigh)

"I hope to make my greatest reputation as an arranger of Negro spirituals. In them my race has pure goal and they should be taken as the Negro's contribution to art."
Opportunity magazine. May, 1924, p155
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SPIRITUALS

1. First quote (Harry T. Burleigh)

"I hope to make my greatest reputation as an arranger of Negro spirituals. In them my race has pure goal and they should be taken as the Negro's contribution to art."
Opportunity magazine. May, 1924, p155
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SPIRITUALITY


1. Statement 1. John Coltrane said said that the artist had the highest calling for the forces of good and love in society, and that all he wanted to do with his music was to create good.

2. Statement 2. Jone Coltrane felt that the artist had a moral responsibility through his art. In that, he was unlike the be-bop musicians who rarely got involved with things outside their music.
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STAGE PLAY

1. First Quote (Al Jolson)

.....Al Jolson says he's terrible on the screen. Pitts C, 9/25/25 (2/2)

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TAXES

1. First quote (Lawrence Winters)

....."If you put off for tomorrow what you should do today, there probably will be a higher tax on it." Jet 1/3/52, 14

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VIOLIN

1. First Quote (Clarence Cameron White)

Clarence Cameron White referred to the violin as the "King of Instruments" in an article entitled "The Art of Violin Playing." "THE NEGRO MUSIC JOURNAL, Sep 1902, p2

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WHITE, CLARENCE CAMERON

1. First Quote (Clarence Cameron White)

Clarence Cameron White referred to the violin as the "King of Instruments" in an article entitled "The Art of Violin Playing." THE NEGRO MUSIC JOURNAL, Sep 1902, p2
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WINTERS

1. First quote (Lawrence Winters)

.....if you put off for tomorrow what you should do today, there probably will be a higher tax on it. Jet 1/3/52, p14