“As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this.”

“To be free … to walk the good American earth as equal citizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil, to give our children every opportunity in life — that dream which we have held so long in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands.”

— artist, scholar, and activist Paul Robeson, born today in 1898