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They deny good luck, love, power, romance, and inspiration
From La Jac Brite ointment and incense of all kinds,
And condemn in writing skin brightening and whitening
and whitening of minds. There is upon the federal trade commission a burden of glory
So to defend the fact, so to impel
The plucking of hope from the hand, honor from the complexion,
Sprite from the spell.

— Josephine Miles Government Injunction Restraining Harlem Cosmetic Co (1941)

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More quotes by Josephine Miles

"In the roots of grammar, the stems of logic and the flowers of rhetoric take their being."

Style and Proportion The Language of Prose and Poetry (1967)

Death did not come to my mother
Like an old friend.
She was a mother, and she must
Conceive him. Up and down the bed she fought crying
Help me, but death
Was a slow child
Heavy.

Conception (1974)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Josephine Miles (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.