_“What a self-conscious people your Negroes are!” a recent French
visitor exclaimed. He was right. The Negro lives constantly on two
planes of awareness. Watching the telecast of a boxing match between
Ezzard Charles, the Negro who happened to be heavyweight champion, and a
white challenger, a friend of mine said, “I don’t like Charles as a
person but I’ve got to root for him to beat this white boy—and good.”_
_One’s heart is sickened at the realization of the primal energy that
goes undeflected and unrefined into the sheer business of living as a
Negro in the United States—in any one of the United States._
J. Saunders Redding has also written:
TO MAKE A POET BLACK
NO DAY OF TRIUMPH
STRANGER AND ALONE
THEY CAME IN CHAINS
READING FOR WRITING (A college text with Ivan E. Taylor)
AN AMERICAN IN INDIA
LONESOME ROAD
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ON BEING NEGRO IN AMERICA