Black History Month Inspirational Quotes - Page 3

• In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.

  Toni Morrison

  Inspirational, Country, Mean

  The Guardian, January 29, 1992.

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• You really can change the world if you care enough.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Inspirational, Change, Black History

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• Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Men, Racism, Hatred

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1955). “Insecurity of Freedom”, p.86, Macmillan

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• Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

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• Knowing what must be done does away with fear.

  Rosa Parks

  Inspiring, Strong Women, Fear

  Rosa Parks, Gregory J. Reed (1994). “Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope, and the Heart of a Woman who Changed a Nation”, Zondervan

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• Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Change, Inspiring, Creativity

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “A Time to Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King, Jr., for Students”, p.30, Beacon Press

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• I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Life, Eye, Soul

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.153, Feminist Press at CUNY

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• I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in 'We, the people.'

  Barbara Jordan

  Mistake, Years, People

  Statement on the Articles of Impeachment, delivered 25 July 1974, House Judiciary Committee

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• I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

  Ralph Ellison

  Men, People, Black History

  Invisible Man prologue (1952)

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• There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution

  Frederick Douglass

  Loyalty, People, Black History

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• One ever feels his twoness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Dark, Two, Black History

  "Strivings of the Negro People" (1897)

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• Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.

  Robert Kennedy

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Robert F. Kennedy (1998). “Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy”, Harcourt

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• Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet

  Sarah Louise Delany

  Inspirational, Life, Happiness

  Sarah Louise Delany, Annie Elizabeth Delany, Amy Hill Hearth (1993). “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years”, p.214, Kodansha America

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• One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.

  Franklin A. Thomas

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Freedom

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• I used to want the words 'She tried' on my tombstone. Now I want 'She did it.'

  Katherine Dunham

  Inspirational, Strength, Happiness

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• Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.

  William Lloyd Garrison

  Sex, Rights, Diversity

  William Lloyd Garrison, Bruce Rogers (1905). “The Words of Garrison: A Centennial Selection (1805-1905) of Characteristic Sentiments from the Writings of William Lloyd Garrison”

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• No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

  Booker T. Washington

  Inspirational, Work, Writing

  Address at Atlanta International Exposition, Atlanta, Ga., 18 Sept. 1895

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• In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

  Booker T. Washington

  Hands, Kwanzaa, Black History

  "Papers: The Autobiographical Writings".

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• American means white, and Africanist people struggle to make the term applicable to themselves with ethnicity and hyphen after hyphen after hyphen.

  Toni Morrison

  Struggle, Mean, Ethnicity

  Toni Morrison (2007). “Playing in the Dark”, p.38, Vintage

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• we are the ones we have been waiting for

  Alice Walker

  Change, Confidence, Life Changing

  Alice Walker (2013). “The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker”, p.342, The New Press

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• Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

  Arthur Ashe

  Racism, Black History, African American

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• 

  I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Faith, Peace

  "50 years after receiving Nobel Prize, do Martin Luther King's peace prophecies still resonate?", www.foxnews.com. October 12, 2014.

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• It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

  Robert Kennedy

  Change, Hope, Courage

  Robert F. Kennedy (1998). “Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy”, Harcourt

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• I am the dream and the hope of the slave

  Maya Angelou

  Dream, History, African American

  Maya Angelou (2011). “Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women”, p.9, Random House

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• Unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Kings, Truth

  Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 10 Dec. 1964

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