"Life for me ain't been no crystal stair"

Mother to Son by Langston Hughes

"I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. / I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep."

The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes

"Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack / Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!"

"If We Must Die" by Claude McKay.

"But all the time / I'se been a-climbin' on, / And reachin' landin's, / And turnin' corners, /And sometimes goin' in the dark"

Mother to Son by Langston Hughes

"47th Street in Chicago and Lenox / Avenue in New York and Rampart Street in New / Orleans..."

For My People by Margaret Walker

"I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln / went down to New Orleans..."

The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes

"losing time / being lazy, sleeping when hungry, shouting when / burdened, drinking when hopeless, tied, and shackled and tangled among ourselves by the unseen creatures / who tower over us omnisciently and laugh..."

For My People by Margaret Walker

"We / Lurk late. We / Strike straight."

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

"Let a / bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second / generation full of courage issue forth;"

For My People by Margaret Walker

"We die soon."

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks