“Well, that nigger pride is like that. We wrapped it up and put it away inside that trunk, inside a cedar chest, wrapped up in paper and cotton, mothballs, with a big lock on the outside, waiting for a day when we’d need it. We got to get inside that trunk and get it out or find out if it’s empty. White folks been trying to rob that trunk for centuries and maybe they did and we didn’t know it, or it shriveled up and disappeared out of disuse. But if we can find it and use it, if we can get that black pride going for us, then nothing is going to stop us until we’re free—nothing and nobody. They’ll have to kill us or free us, twenty-five million of us!