How dare anyone, parent, schoolteacher, or merely literary critic, tell me not to act colored.

About Arna Bontemps

Arna Wendell Bontempswas an American poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance.

American poet, novelist

Yet would we die as some have done, beating a way for the rising sun.

American poet, novelist

Is there something we have forgotten? Some precious thing we have lost, wandering in strange lands?

American poet, novelist

Let us keep the dance of rain our fathers kept and tread our dreams beneath the jungle sky.

American poet, novelist