Black History Quotes - Page 6

• It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What you do? You integrate it with cream; you make it weak. If you pour too much cream in, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it’ll put you to sleep.

  Malcolm X

  Strong, Coffee, Sleep

  Malcolm X's Speech at the Northern Negro Grass Roots Leadership Conference in Detroit, Michigan, teachingamericanhistory.org. November 10, 1963.

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• Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability comes true for us.

  Susan L. Taylor

  Inspirational, Happiness, Success

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• Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Kings, Hate, Light

  "A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings".

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• The potential for greatness lives within us all.

  Wilma Rudolph

  Inspirational Sports, Athlete, Greatness

  "50 stunning Olympic moments No35: Wilma Rudolph's triple gold in 1960" by Rob Bagchi, www.theguardian.com. June 1, 2012.

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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, African American

  Invisible Man prologue (1952)

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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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• For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Truth, Men

  1972 On Africa. In the New York Times,16 Apr.

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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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, African American

  "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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• 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, Brotherhood

  "Papers: The Autobiographical Writings".

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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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• I do not weep at the world I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Oysters, Knives, African American

  World Tomorrow "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928)

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• I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.

  Harper Lee

  Thinking, Differences, Tkam

  Harold Bloom, Harper Lee (2010). “Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird”, p.44, Infobase Publishing

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• If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything ... that smacks of discrimination or slander.

  Mary McLeod Bethune

  Peace, Responsibility, Racism

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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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• We are the ones we've been waiting for.

  June Jordan

  Change, Life Changing, Yes We Can

  June Jordan, “Poem For South African Women”

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• For I am my mother's daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart.

  Mary McLeod Bethune

  Inspirational, Mother, Daughter

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• Miracles happen all the time. We're here, aren't we?

  Marilyn Nelson

  Miracle, Black, Happens

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• This being Black History Month, I would like to ask people to celebrate the similarities and not focus on the differences between people of color and not of color.

  Lynn Swann

  Color, Differences, People

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• What is possible for me is possible for you.

  Frederick Douglass

  Liberty

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• A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can't play the part of a wise man.

  Malcolm X

  Motivational, Wise, Men

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