African American Women Quotes - Page 3

• Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.

  Carol Moseley Braun

  Inspiring, Being Yourself, Freedom

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• I know why the caged bird sings.

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Children, Book

  Title of book (1969), taken from the last line of "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar in Lyrics of Hearthside (1899). Cf. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1979) 567:10

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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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• If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

  Toni Morrison

  Inspirational, Happiness, Attitude

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• To reaffirm the statement on the choosing of my identity, I come from two beautiful cultures which I have embraced, bridged, balanced, and identify with. I am proud to be who I am as a Dine' (Navajo) and Nahilii (African American) woman. Hozho', , & blessings

  Radmilla Cody

  Beautiful, Blessing, Who I Am

  FaceBook post by Radmilla Cody from Feb 15, 2013

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• ... not all black women have silently acquiesced in sexism and misogyny within the African-American community. Indeed, many writers, activists, and other women have voiced their opposition and paid the price: they have been ostracized and branded as either man- haters or pawns of white feminists, two of the more predictable modes of disciplining and discrediting black feminists.

  Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

  Men, Two, White

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• All of my history as an African-American woman, as a Jewish woman, as a Muslim woman. I'm bringing everything I ever knew, and all the stories I've read - everything good, strong, kind and powerful. I bring it all with me into every situation, and I will not allow my life to be minimized by anybody's racism or sexism or ageism.

  Maya Angelou

  Strong, Powerful, Racism

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com. December 2000.

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• It's important for women to understand that it's bad enough that we don't make dollar-for-dollar what men do, but when you distill that down to women of color, our Latinas and our African American women, it's even less than that 78 cents.

  Nina Turner

  Men, Color, African American

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• Look at Hispanic women - they are being paid 42 cents on the dollar - or African-American women. I think it's an issue we have to look at across the board.

  Jessica Chastain

  Thinking, Issues, African American

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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• Senator Sessions has opposed protections for LGBT individuals. He's spoken out against Freedom Corps' marriage equality decision. He opposed the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He opposed the nomination of Loretta Lynch, the nation's first African-American woman to serve as attorney general. These things worry me.

  Patrick Leahy

  Worry, Decision, African American

  Source: www.npr.org

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• There still aren't enough[ roles for women of color]. And I'd say that's the case, not only for African-American women, but for all women in the Hollywood game. It's just slim pickings, and a very challenging time for us. I think that's why more of us need to work our way behind the camera in order to create roles that really illuminate who women are. We still have room for growth in that area, without a doubt.

  Jada Pinkett Smith

  Thinking, Order, Color

  Source: afrotoronto.com

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• The hearts of Afro-American women are too warm and too large for race hatred. Long suffering has so chastened them that they are developing a special sense of sympathy for all who suffer and fail of justice.

  Fannie Barrier Williams

  Heart, Compassion, Race

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• The writer in me can look as far as an African-American woman and stop. Often that writer looks through the African-American woman. Race is a layer of being, but not a culmination.

  Thylias Moss

  Race, African American, Looks

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• Today masses of black women in the U.S. refuse to acknowledge that they have much to gain by feminist struggle. They fear feminism. They have stood in place so long that they are afraid to move. They fear change. They fear losing what little they have.

  Bell Hooks

  Struggle, Moving, Long

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• Had middle class black women begun a movement in which they had labeled themselves "oppressed," no one would have taken them seriously.

  Bell Hooks

  Taken, Class, African American

  bell hooks (2014). “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center”, p.7, Routledge

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• African-American women who develop breast cancer are more likely to die from the disease than White women of the same age. Survival rates are worse among African-Americans for colon, prostate and ovarian cancers as well.

  Frank C. Garland

  Cancer, White, African American

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• Let me just say, at once: I am not now nor have I ever been a white man. And, leaving aside the joys of unearned privilege, this leaves me feeling pretty good.

  June Jordan

  Men, White, Joy

  June Jordan (2009). “Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays”, p.129, Basic Books

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• Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires.

  June Jordan

  Freedom, Power, African American

  June Jordan (2009). “Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays”, p.137, Basic Books

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• I am a colored woman or a Negro woman. Either one is OK. People dislike those words now. Today these use this term African American. It wouldn't occur to me to use that. I prefer to think of myself as an American, that's all!

  Annie Elizabeth Delany

  Thinking, People, African American

  Sarah Louise Delany, Annie Elizabeth Delany, Amy Hill Hearth (1993). “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years”, p.75, Kodansha America

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• ... black women have always found that in the social order of things we're the least likely to be believed--by anyone.

  Joycelyn Elders

  Order, African American, Black

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• The virtue of female slaves is wholly at the mercy of irresponsible tyrants, and women are bought and sold in our slave markets, to gratify the brutal lust of those who bear the name of Christians.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Christian, Tyrants, Names

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.51

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• The potential significance of Black feminist thought goes far beyond demonstrating that African-American women can be theorists. Like Black feminist practice, which it reflects and which it seeks to foster, Black feminist thought can create a collective identity among African-American women about the dimensions of a Black women's standpoint. Through the process of rearticulating, Black feminist thought can offer African-American women a different view of ourselves and our worlds

  Patricia Hill Collins

  Practice, Our World, Views

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• I suggest that Black feminist thought consists of specialised knowledge created by African-American women which clarifies a standpoint of and for Black women. In other words, Black feminist thought encompasses theoretical interpretations of Black women's reality by those who live it.

  Patricia Hill Collins

  Reality, Feminist, African American

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• Mostly I'm proud to be an African-American woman, but I'm glad I have a universal look as well.

  Chanel Iman

  African American, Looks, Proud

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• I was very proud and grateful to be the first African-American woman in the position. I thought it said a lot about our country that we had back-to-back African-American Secretaries of State, Colin Powell and then me. I also thought it said a lot about President Bush that he didn't see limits on the highest ranking diplomat in terms of color. It's a hard job, but really the best one in government.

  Condoleezza Rice

  Country, Jobs, Grateful

  Source: aalbc.com

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