- Peter Jennings - Host-Narrator: [about the stock market crash of 1929] 30 billion dollars in paper value suddenly vanished that day as the stock market crashed. The 20's bubble had burst and with it the country's optimism.
- Ossie Davis: "The Harlem Renaissance" is one of those fancy terms that white folks use when they want to look at a certain aspect of black folks. I don't think any of us went around say, "Well, we gonna have us a renaissance," or anything like that. It was just a holiday of the spirit
- Ossie Davis: [about the glory of Harlem in the 20s] If I had to choose between Heaven and Harlem, oh ho ho! Harlem would win every time.