Quotessence
Home / Books / How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Book by Clint Smith · 2 quotes · Blacks, Slavery, African Americans

Filter quotes by topic

AllBlacksSlaveryAfrican AmericansHistoryRacismAmerican HistoryMonticelloAfrican American HistoryAmericaCivil WarConfederacyThomas JeffersonWhite SupremacyWhitesDemocracyFreedomInstitutional RacismPlantationsPresidentsTours

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America Quotes

“I watched these young people read to the audience parts of history that placed our country in context. I felt, in that moment, envious of them. Had I known when I was younger what some of these students were sharing, I felt as if I would have been liberated from a social and emotional paralysis that for so long I could not name--a paralysis that had arisen from never knowing enough of my own history to effectively identify the lies I was being told by others: lies about what slavery was and what it did to people; lies about what came after our supposed emancipation; lies about why our country looks the way it does today. I had grown up in a world that never tired of telling me and other Black children like me all of the things that were wrong with us, all of the things we needed to do better. But not enough people spoke about the reason so many Black children grow up in communities saturated with poverty and violence. Not enough people spoke about how these realities were the result of decisions made by people in power and had existed for generations before us.”

HistoryRacismSlaveryAfrican AmericansBlacksBlack HistoryAfrican American HistoryInstitutional Racism
Book:How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Create image

“I asked [my grandfather] if there would ever be an America in which white Americans were not actively working to keep themselves positioned atop the racial hierarchy. He thought for a moment and then said, "Some of them will never give it up.”

AmericaRaceBlacksWhite SupremacyRace RelationsWhitesInstitutional Racism
Book:How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Create image