Black History Quotes - Page 4

• When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.

  James Earl Jones

  Drama, Writing, Feelings

  James Earl Jones, Penelope Niven (1993). “James Earl Jones: Voices and Silences”, Scribner Book Company

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• Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Love, Inspirational, Life

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• If people believe that they are marrying out of love and free choice rather than out of duty, they are more likely to decide, if love should die, that the free choice to join together is no more significant than the free choice to part, and to look for love elsewhere; those married out of duty expect less love to begin with, and what duty has brought together, duty may keep together.

  Stephen L. Carter

  Believe, People, Choices

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• Today we know with certainty that segregation is dead. The only question remaining is how costly will be the funeral.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Funeral, Today, Segregation

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

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• As I like to say to the people in Montgomery: "The tension in this city is not between white people and Negro people. The tension is, at bottom, between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Light, Cities, White

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1968). “I Have a Dream: The Quotations of Martin Luther King, Jr”

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• There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up. [...] The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. [...] To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Giving Up, People, Yoke

  "Three Ways of Meeting Oppression". Essay by Martin Luther King, Jr., taken from MLK's book "Stride Toward Freedom", 1958.

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• If it's wrong for 13-year-old inner-city girls to have babies without the benefit of marriage, it's wrong for rich celebrities, and we ought to stop putting them on the cover of People magazine.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Girl, Baby, Years

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• It cannot be denied that too often the weight of the Christian movement has been on the side of the strong and the powerful and against the weak and oppressed-this, despite the gospel.

  Howard Thurman

  Christian, Strong, Powerful

  Howard Thurman (2014). “A Strange Freedom: The Best of Howard Thurman on Religious Experience and Public Life”, p.145, Beacon Press

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• The shadow of a mighty Negro past flits through the tale of Ethiopia the shadowy and of the Egypt the Sphinx. Throughout history, the powers of single blacks flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Stars, Fall, Past

  W.E.B. Du Bois, Vann R. Newkirk II (2017). “The Souls of Black Folk”, p.34, Restless Books

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• The world is a severe schoolmaster, for its frowns are less dangerous than its smiles and flatteries, and it is a difficult task to keep in the path of wisdom.

  Phillis Wheatley

  Tasks, World, Path

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• To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Men, Race, Land

  The Souls of Black Folk ch. 1 (1903)

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• And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

  Sojourner Truth

  Mother, Strong Women, Jesus

  Sojourner Truth, “Ain't I A Woman?”

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• My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you.

  Paul Robeson

  Inspirational, Country, Father

  Testimony before House Un-American Activities Committee, 12 June 1956

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• Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind.

  Quincy Jones

  Children, Love You, Greatness

  Twitter post from Mar 04, 2017

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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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• 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, Honor

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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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• Hate is too great a burden to bear.

  Coretta Scott King

  Hater, Famous Love, Inspirational Love

  "Understanding Cultural Diversity in Today's Complex World‎" by Leo Parvis, (p. 54), 2006.

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• What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? ... Or does it explode?

  Langston Hughes

  Love, Dream, Dry Up

  "Harlem" l. 1 (1951)

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

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Inspirational, Change, African American

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• Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, . . . neither persons nor property will be safe.

  Frederick Douglass

  Ignorance, Justice, Society

  Speech on the twenty-fourth anniversary of emancipation in the District of Columbia,Washington, D.C., Apr. 1886

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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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• We’ve gone through the names—Negro, African American, African, Black. For me that’s an indication of a people still trying to find their identity. Who determines what is black?

  Spike Lee

  Names, People, African American

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  Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

  Langston Hughes

  Love, Inspirational, Change

  "Dreams" l. 1 (1929)

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• I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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