Black History Quotes

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  The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity.

  Ruby Dee

  Strength, Inspiring, Beauty

  "Rhodessa Jones: Ruby Dee a guiding light for social change" by Rhodessa Jones, www.sfgate.com. June 17, 2014.

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• There's always something to suggest that you'll never be who you wanted to be. Your choice is to take it or keep on moving.

  Phylicia Rashad

  Life, Inspiring, Moving On

  62 Copy quote

• I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.

  Rosa Parks

  Inspirational, Giving Up, Tired

  Rosa Parks, Gregory J. Reed (1994). “Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope, and the Heart of a Woman who Changed a Nation”, Zondervan

  59 Copy quote

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• To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when no one else will.

  Sugar Ray Robinson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  113 Copy quote
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  Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.67, Beacon Press

  1114 Copy quote

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• I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

  Booker T. Washington

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  Booker T. Washington (1901). “An Autobiography: The Story of My Life and Work, the Original Brought Up-to-date with Over Half a Hundred Full Page Photo and Halftone Engravings and Drawings by Frank Beard”

  388 Copy quote

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• Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.

  Muhammad Ali

  Hate, Inspiration, Greatness

  FaceBook post by Muhammad Ali from Sep 02, 2013

  26 Copy quote

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• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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

  172 Copy quote

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• If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

  Audre Lorde

  Inspiring, Being Yourself, People

  188 Copy quote
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  No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

  Alice Walker

  Friendship, Fake Friends, Memorable

  Alice Walker (2013). “The Alice Walker Collection: Non-Fiction”, p.17, Hachette UK

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• The past is a ghost, the future a dream, and all we ever have is now.

  Bill Cosby

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Bill Cosby (1987). “Time Flies”

  17 Copy quote

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• My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.

  Desmond Tutu

  Inspiring, God, Freedom

  Desmond Tutu, Naomi Tutu (1989). “The words of Desmond Tutu”, Newmarket Pr

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  Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

  Harriet Tubman

  Inspiring, Dream, Passion

  564 Copy quote

• Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

  James A. Baldwin

  Inspirational, Change, Leadership

  "As Much Truth As One Can Bear". The New York Times Book Review, January 14, 1962.

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• you must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.

  Rosa Parks

  Motivational, Change, Peace And Love

  786 Copy quote

• I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.

  Madam C. J. Walker

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  1005 Copy quote

• You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.

  Eldridge Cleaver

  Life, Idaho, Politics

  Speech to San Francisco Barristers' Club, San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 1968.

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• As we celebrate Black History Month we should be grateful for the achievements they made and inspired by their legacies to continue their work.

  Marty Meehan

  Grateful, Hymns, Achievement

  16 Copy quote

• You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

  Frederick Douglass

  Men, African American, Slave

  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass ch. 10 (1845)

  23 Copy quote

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• You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

  Malcolm X

  Peace, Freedom, Inspiration

  Speech in New York City, January 7, 1965.

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• Won't it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.

  Maya Angelou

  Book, Native American, Taught

  "Maya Angelou: 'Barack Obama has done a remarkable job'" by Hugh Muir, www.theguardian.com. February 15, 2012.

  54 Copy quote

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• Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his goals.

  Dorothy Height

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Perseverance

  251 Copy quote
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  I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.

  Michael Jordan

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  "I Can't Accept Not Trying : Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence". Book by Michael Jordan (p. 129), 1994.

  219 Copy quote

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• There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don't expect you to save the world I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.

  Nikki Giovanni

  Happiness, Inspiring, Success

  207 Copy quote

• The great thing about serving the poor is that there is no competition.

  Eugene Rivers

  Competition, Poor, Great Things

  44 Copy quote