“What kind of Negroes do the American people want? Do they want a voteless Negro in a republic founded upon universal suffrage? Do they want a Negro who shall not be permitted to participate in the government which he must support with his treasure and defend with his blood?”

Challenging the inconsistency of denying rights to those who serve · Your Negro Neighbor (1919)

• Citizenship
• Equality
• Justice

“Literature should be not only history but prophecy, not only the record of our striving but also the mirror of our hopes and dreams. The Negro himself is the supreme challenge to American literature.”

Calling for literature that both records and envisions the future · Essay (as reprinted 1923)

• Hope
• Identity
• Literature

“The Negro is not a problem, but a man with a problem.”

Rejecting the reduction of Black people to a social question rather than recognising their full humanity · Essay, The Negro in Literature and Art

• Dignity
• Humanity
• Race