“It is not intellect that has brought this about; less has it been due to education; it has been due to character and character is the expression of habits and ideas.”

Emphasising the formative power of inherited habits and shared ideas · Introduction, Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1921

• Character
• Culture
• Education

“Negro poetic expression hovers for the moment, pardonably perhaps, over the race problem, but its highest allegiance is to Poetry—it must soar.”

Arguing that poetry can arise from social struggle while aspiring beyond immediate circumstance · Essay, The Negro in American Literature

• Freedom
• Poetry
• Struggle

“With each new figure somehow the gamut broadens and the technical control improves.”

Seeing literary development as both an expansion of range and an increase in craftsmanship · Essay, The Negro in American Literature

• Growth
• Poetry
• Skill