A. Johnson
A. Johnson
running heart giving
Nothing great or enduring, especially in music, has ever sprung full-fledged and unprecedented from the brain of any master; the best he gives to the world he gathers from the hearts of the people, and runs it through the alembic of his genius.
music may characteristics
It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives it most distinctive characteristics.
race lynching names
I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race; but that I would change my name, raise a mustache, and let the world take me for what it would; that it was not necessary for me to go about with a label of inferiority pasted across my forehead.
ambition voice joy
But I must own that I also felt stirred by an unselfish desire to voice all the joys and sorrows, the hopes and ambitions, of the American Negro, in classic musical form.
work stones philosopher
Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune.
black disgrace inconvenient
It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.
music long-ago fire
O Black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?
couple book school
And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.
first-love boys firsts
She was my first love, and I loved her as only a boy loves.
country justice democracy
This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen.
gambling luck meals
My luck at the gambling table was varied; sometimes I was fifty to a hundred dollars ahead, and at other times I had to borrow money from my fellow workmen to settle my room rent and pay for my meals.
mother helping busy
My mother was kept very busy with her sewing; sometimes she would have another woman helping her.
effort suffering trying
Make yourself as happy as possible, and try to make those happy whose lives come in touch with yours. But to attempt to right the wrongs and cease the sufferings of the world in general is a waste of effort.
sadness men paris
When we arrived in London, my sadness at leaving Paris was turned into despair. After my long stay in the French capital, huge, ponderous, massive London seemed to me as ugly a thing as man could contrive to make.