Black People Quotes

• Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people.

  Coretta Scott King

  Believe, Memorable, White

  "The Last Word : A Treasury of Women's Quotes" by Carolyn Warner, (p. 99), 1992.

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• The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

  Alice Walker

  Meaningful, Nature, Men

  "The Dreaded Comparison: Animal Slavery and Human Slavery". Book by Marjorie Spiegel, Foreword, 1996.

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  It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it.

  Nelson Mandela

  Inspirational, Optimistic, Hands

  Nelson Mandela (2012). “Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom”, p.118, Simon and Schuster

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  If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring

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• Black people have always been America's wilderness in search of a promised land.

  Cornel West

  Inspirational, America, Land

  Cornel West (2000). “Race Matters”, p.16, Beacon Press

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• It comes down to this: black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it's been a quest since then to define who we are.

  Spike Lee

  People, Black, Identity

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• How come the Chinese can go where I can't go in America? Englishmen can come and set up a business in white America and do things I can't do.The Puerto Rican, Hawaiians, just about everybody can do more than black people and are more respected.

  Muhammad Ali

  White, America, People

  Interview with Michael Parkinson, www.mirror.co.uk. October 17, 1971.

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• I am convinced that the Black man will only reach his full potential when he learns to draw upon the strengths and insights of the Black woman.

  Manning Marable

  Strength, Women, African American

  Manning Marable (1988). “The Crisis of Color and Democracy: Essays on Race, Class, and Power”

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• Jim Crow is alive and it's dressed in a Brooks Brothers suit, my friend, instead of a white robe.

  Myrlie Evers-Williams

  Brother, White, Crow

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• When you talk about "white privilege", you're talking about something systemic. When you're talking about "black privilege" it's something spiritual because we as black people tap into a divine system that a lot of other cultures and races can't tap into and that system allows us to prosper in spite of everything that's been thrown our way from slavery to segregation to mass incarceration. We have a privilege pre-ordained by God that nothing and no one can stop.

  Charlamagne Tha God

  Spiritual, People, Black

  Source: lasentinel.net

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• Race means family and all black people whether they like it or not, are family.

  Kola Boof

  Mean, Race, People

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  If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.

  Malcolm X

  Hate, Lying, Media

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• In my opinion while lynchings were quite possibly the most heinous crimes ever witnessed in American history, they helped in bringing people together for a sole purpose. It was because of these lynchings that armed self-resistance was created. If white people knew black people were capable of fighting back then there was less of a chance that violence actually would break out.

  Assata Shakur

  Fighting, Lynching, Self

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• A lot of people, black, white, mexican, young or old, fat or skinny have a problem being true to they self. They have a problem looking in the mirror and looking directly into their own souls. Only reason I am who I am today is because I can look directly into my face and find my soul

  Tupac Shakur

  Mirrors, Self, Who I Am

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• Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we're never going to be successful not because of you white people but because of other black people.

  Charles Barkley

  Successful, White, People

  "Charles Barkley: 'Brainwashed' blacks hold up success" by Breeanna Hare, www.cnn.com. October 28, 2014.

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• In the gun game, we are the most hunted. The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows mostly from the bodies of our black children.

  Harry Belafonte

  Children, Gun, Blood

  Harry Belafonte’s Speech Accepting NAACP Spingarn Medal, www.democracynow.org. February 18, 2013.

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• If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.

  Malcolm X

  Country, Baby, Children

  "Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements". Book by Malcolm X edited by George Breitman, 1965.

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• Reckless capitalism kills black people.

  Mos Def

  People, Black, Reckless

  "Mos Def: The Ecstatic" by Gareth Grundy, www.theguardian.com. August 22, 2009.

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• It is our experience that the nation doesn't move around questions of genuine equality for the poor and for black people until it is confronted massively, dramatically in terms of direct action.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Moving, Direct Action, People

  "Blacklivesmatter protests shut down major highway in Boston, 29 arrested" by Adam Fleischer, www.mtv.com. January 15, 2015.

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• If I could take all my parts with me when I go somewhere / and not have to say to one of them, ‘No, you stay home tonight, you won’t be welcome’/ because I’m going to an all-white party where I can be gay but not Black / Or I’m going to a Black poetry reading, and half the poets are anti-homosexual / or thousands of situations where something of what I am cannot come with me / The day all the different parts of me can come along / we would have what I would call / a revolution

  Pat Parker

  Party, Reading, Home

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• At this moment, then, the Negroes must begin to do the very thing which they have been taught that they cannot do.

  Carter G. Woodson

  Black, Taught, Moments

  Carter G. Woodson (2006). “The Mis-Education of the Negro”, p.108, Book Tree

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• The police can go to downtown Harlem and pick up a kid with a joint in the streets. But they can't go into the elegant apartments and get a stockbroker who's sniffing cocaine.

  Noam Chomsky

  Kids, White Privilege, Racism

  "Noam Chomsky: Smoke and Mirrors, or Civil Liberties Under President Obama". Interview with Mike Stivers, www.truth-out.org. April 24, 2013.

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• No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion.

  Booker T. Washington

  Food, Men, Thinking

  W. E. B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington (2012). “Three African-American Classics: Up from Slavery, The Souls of Black Folk and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, p.47, Courier Corporation

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• If the Negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto.

  Carter G. Woodson

  Being Strong, Ghetto, Hands

  Carter G. Woodson (2006). “The Mis-Education of the Negro”, p.110, Book Tree

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• Dr. King's policy was, if you are nonviolent, if you suffer, your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That's very good. He only made one fallacious assumption. In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.

  Stokely Carmichael

  Kings, Heart, Order

  YouTube Channel "StefaniaStudio"/"The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975", www.youtube.com. March 23, 2011.

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