Racial Equality Quotes

• My fight is not for racial sameness but for racial equality and against racial prejudice and discrimination.

  John Oliver Killens

  Fighting, Justice, Diversity

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• To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

  William Faulkner

  Life, Equality, Alaska

  William Faulkner (2011). “Essays, Speeches & Public Letters”, p.101, Modern Library

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• I would point out that Japan's proposal at the Versailles Peace Conference on the principle of racial equality was rejected by delegates such as those from Britain and the United States

  Hideki Tojo

  Equality, Japan, Principles

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• The Negro who experiences bitter and agonizing circumstances as a result of some ungodly white person is tempted to look upon all white persons as evil, if he fails to look beyond his circumstances. But the minute he looks beyond his circumstances and sees the whole of the situation, he discovers that some of the most implacable and vehement advocates of racial equality are consecrated white persons.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  White, Evil, Looks

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• If I can mean to people - if I can symbolize the ability to pursue gender equality, racial equality, and to be truthful about our experiences, then, absolutely, that's what I want to be.

  Anita Hill

  Mean, People, Want

  "Anita Hill Reflects on 20 Years Since Clarence Thomas Hearings". Interview with Judy Woodruff, www.pbs.org. October 10, 2011.

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• I believe profoundly in the possibilities of democracy, but democracy needs to be emancipated from capitalism. As long as we inhabit a capitalist democracy, a future of racial equality, gender equality, economic equality will elude us.

  Angela Davis

  Believe, Elude Us, Long

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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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• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a time to honor the greatest champion of racial equality who taught a nation - through compassion and courage - about democracy, nonviolence and racial justice.

  Mark Pryor

  Courage, Kings, Compassion

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• It does no service to the cause of racial equality for white people to content themselves with judging themselves to be nonracist. Few people outside the clan or skinhead movements own up to all-out racism these days. White people must take the extra step. They must become anti-racist.

  Clarence Page

  White, Racism, People

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• The interesting scope of Mark Twain's development as a human being is that he grew. He saw, he travelled, he studied this country and later the world with the eye of a man educating himself. This is a central fact in the Mark Twain legacy. He became an American spokesman for the ideals of racial equality and dignity for the working man because he was willing to look the world in its face and see, really see what was happening to the people in it.

  Hal Holbrook

  Country, Eye, Men

  Source: www.broadwayworld.com

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• I think it's important for us to recognize that although historically black communities have been very progressive with respect to issues of race and with respect to struggles for racial equality, that does not necessarily translate into progressive positions on gender issues, progressive positions on issues of sexuality and in the latter 1990s we have to recognize the intersectionality, the interconnectedness of all of these institutions and attitudes.

  Angela Davis

  Attitude, Struggle, Thinking

  Frontline Interview, www.pbs.org. 1997.

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• He wasn't someone fighting for racial equality. He was the leader of a violent, Communist revolution that has nearly succeeded in all of its grisly horror.

  Joseph Farah

  Fighting, Leader, Revolution

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• Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality.

  Barack Obama

  Muslim Faith, Diversity, Mind Blowing

  Statement by the President on the Occasion of Ramadan, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. August 11, 2010.

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• Throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.

  Barack Obama

  Religious, Tolerance, Mind Blowing

  A New Beginning: Speech at Cairo University, delivered 4 June 2009, Cairo, Egypt

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• It's unfortunate that [Louis] Brandeis was not able to translate or abstract his devotion to cultural pluralism and racial equality as he put it for Jews to enslave people and their descendants and to African Americans.

  Jeffrey Rosen

  People, African American, Pluralism

  Source: www.slate.com

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• Fidel Castro rhetorically championed the poor. He also held the Cuban economy in a kind of arrested state. He called for racial equality but often cracked down - but did crack down on the press and dissidents and Cuban gays.

  Scott Simon

  Gay, Cracks, Kind

  "Cuba Reacts To Fidel Castro's Death". Interview with Scott Simon, kccu.org. November 26, 2016.

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• Long before many of us were even conscious of our own degradation, these men [Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. DuBois] fought for African national and racial equality.

  Kwame Nkrumah

  Long, Degradation, Conscious

  "All-African People's Conference".

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