I should have been reminded that disappointment produces despair and despair produces bitterness, and that the one thing certain about bitterness is its blindness.

The history books, which have almost completely ignored the contribution of the Negro in American history, have only served to intensify the Negroes' sense of worthlessness and to augment the anachronistic doctrine of white supremacy.

With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.

Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten. A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present.

History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it.