Black Race Quotes

• I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race; but that I would change my name, raise a mustache, and let the world take me for what it would; that it was not necessary for me to go about with a label of inferiority pasted across my forehead.

  James Weldon Johnson

  Race, Lynching, Names

  James Weldon Johnson “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man”, W. W. Norton & Company

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• I am not in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Office, Favors

  Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Charleston, Ill., 18 Sept. 1858

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• I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races: that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Race, White

  Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Charleston, Ill., 18 Sept. 1858

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• As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, he is trash.

  Harper Lee

  Respect, Black And White, Men

  To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 23 (1960)

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• And so this is Xmas for black and for white, for yellow and red, let's stop all the fight.

  John Lennon

  Peace, Xmas, Fighting

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• I want to go up to the closest white person and say: 'You can't understand this, it's a black thing' and then slap him, just for my mental health.

  Charles Barron

  White, Racism, Black

  "Stupid Black Men: How to Play the Race Card: And Lose". Book by Larry Elder, www.amazon.ca. 2008.

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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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• So when you enjoy the beats, the rock music - maybe even toned down with an orchestra - you are enjoying the spirit of the black race. And that's what I emphasize to the students.

  Warren Jeffs

  Race, Rocks, Black

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• Yes, I'm an extremist. The Black race here in North America is in extremely bad condition. You show me a Black man who isn't an extremist and I'll show you one who needs psychiatric attention.

  Malcolm X

  Men, America, Race

  Malcolm X (2015). “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, p.400, Ballantine Books

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• The greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of our game is the black race.

  Branch Rickey

  Race, Games, Black

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Ham will continue to be servant of servants, as the Lord decreed, until the curse is removed. will the present struggle free the slave? No; but they are now wasting away the black race by thousands.... Treat the slaves kindly and let them live, for Ham must be the servant of servants until the curse is removed. Can you destroy the decrees of the Almighty? You cannot. Yet our Christian brethren think that they are going to overthrow the sentence of the Almighty upon the seed of Ham. They cannot do that, though they may kill them by thousands and tens of thousands.

  Brigham Young

  Christian, Struggle, Thinking

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• If ever America undergoes great revolutions, they will be brought about by the presence of the black race on the soil of the United States - that is to say, they will owe their origin not to the equality but to the inequality of conditions.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Wisdom, Race, America

  Democracy in America vol. 2, sec. 3, ch. 21 (1840) (translation by Henry Reeve)

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• I don't like the idea of the black race being diluted out of existence. I like the idea of all of us being here.

  Gwendolyn Brooks

  Race, Ideas, Black

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• I want to hear the chanting
  Around a heathen fire
  Of a strange black race.

  Gwendolyn B. Bennett

  Race, Fire, Singing

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• I think that show will go down in history... people will scratch their heads and say 'How did this ever get on the air?' I mean, they finally have a planet that's populated with a black race and then they present them as savage warriors, and the men want the white girl!

  Denise Crosby

  Mean Girls, Warrior, Men

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• I used to joke for years that I was a black man. I adopted the black culture, the black race. I married a black woman, and I had black kids. I always considered myself a 'brother.'

  Tommy Chong

  Brother, Kids, Men

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• I want to make it clear that the black race did not come to the United States culturally empty-handed. The role and importance of ethnic history is in how well it teaches a people to use their own talents, take pride in their own history and love their own memories.

  John Henrik Clarke

  Memories, Pride, Race

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• Africans and persons of African descent must assume the primary responsibility and leadership in historical research....if we are to continue to leave practically all important historical research and writing concerning the black race to the white man, then we must be prepared to accept, uncomplainingly, the white man's point of view.

  Chancellor Williams

  Leadership, Responsibility, Writing

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• I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is physical difference between the two which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Two, White, Differences

  Abraham Lincoln (2009). “The Portable Abraham Lincoln”, p.132, Penguin

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• There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races... A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together. If white and black people never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood in Kansas...

  Abraham Lincoln

  Ideas, White, Kansas

  Speech on the Dred Scott Decision, Springfield, Illinois, web.archive.org. June 26, 1857.

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• I have conceived a higher opinion of the natural capacities of the black race than I had ever before entertained. Their apprehension seems as quick, their memory as strong, and their docility in every respect equal to that of white children.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Strong, Children, Memories

  Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson (2003). “A Benjamin Franklin Reader”, p.202, Simon and Schuster

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• I certainly wasn't seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me, asking questions. One was, "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books.

  Alex Haley

  Book, College, Asking Questions

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• Our clear goal must be the advancement of the white race and separation of the white and black races. This goal must include freeing of the American media and government from subservient Jewish interests.

  David Duke

  Government, Media, Ku Klux Klan

  "Duke Speaks Out". "The Crusader Newspaper", November 1978.

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• People keep telling me about the white race and the black race - and it really doesn't make sense. I played Miami, met a fellow two shades darker than me - and his name was Ginsberg! Took my place in two sit-in demonstrations - nobody knew the difference. The he tried for a third lunch counter and blew the whole bit ... asked for blintzes.

  Dick Gregory

  Race, Names, Two

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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