For The Black Man There

I Am Black: I Am The Incarnation Of A Complete Fusion With The World, An Intuitive Understanding Of The Earth, An Abandonment Of My Ego In The Heart Of The Cosmos, And No White Man, No Matter How Intelligent He May Be, Can Ever Understand Louis Armstrong And The Music Of The Congo.

When A Bachelor Of Philosophy From The Antilles Refuses To Apply For Certification As A Teacher On The Grounds Of His Color I Say That Philosophy Has Never Saved Anyone. When Someone Else Strives And Strains To Prove To Me That Black Men Are As Intelligent As White Men I Say That Intelligence Has Never Saved Anyone: And That Is True, For, If Philosophy And Intelligence Are Invoked To Proclaim The Equality Of Men, They Have Also Been Employed To Justify The Extermination Of Men.

Each Generation Must Discover Its Mission, Fulfill It Or Betray It, In Relative Opacity.

They Realize At Last That Change Does Not Mean Reform, That Change Does Not Mean Improvement.

I Feel My Soul As Vast As The World, Truly A Soul As Deep As The Deepest Of Rivers; My Chest Has The Power To Expand To Infinity. I Was Made To Give And They Prescribe For Me The Humility Of The Cripple.