Robert Hayden
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"Robert Hayden" was an American poet, essayist, educator. He served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976–78, a role today known as US Poet Laureate. He was the first African-American writer to hold the office.

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I believe it's true that one person can make a difference. But how much more difference 100 people make, or rather 99.

He was his own man. Because he was his own man, he was able to accomplish what he was able to accomplish in the civil rights movement.

It seemed to me as we were talking about Christ rising from the dead, the sun popped over the mountain. That was indicative of Christ rising - a new day. It just makes sense.

It gives you hope in salvation and perspective in the life that we live today. It's nice to know there's good out there in a world full of terror and evil.

. . . your presence was shore where I rested/ released from the hoodoo of that dance, where I spoke/ with my true voice again.

We must not be frightened nor cajoled/ into accepting evil as deliverance from evil./ We must go on struggling to be human,/ though monsters of abstractions/ police and threaten us.

We discussed music and singing every time our paths crossed out here.

He criticized baseball's racial policies after he stopped playing, especially how blacks were forced to travel. He even criticized some black players for not standing up for their rights.

[My poetry is] a way of coming to grips with reality . . . a way of discovery and definition. It is a way of solving for the unknowns.