If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out a way to tie them up.

The line uses a blunt, proverbial voice to warn that Black freedom and mobility are always contested in a society structured to restrict them. “Got legs” implies the basic capacity to move, choose, and act; “ought to use them” urges self-determination rather than waiting for permission. The second sentence turns from advice to threat: prolonged stillness invites external control—institutions or individuals will “figure out a way” to immobilize you. The imagery evokes both literal restraint (chains, policing, incarceration) and figurative constraint (economic dependency, social intimidation), making the quote a compressed argument for vigilance, initiative, and continual motion as a strategy of survival under racial oppression.