Quotessence
Home / Authors / John Henrik Clarke
John Henrik Clarke

John Henrik Clarke Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsWorldBlackMenThinkingFirstsHas BeensKnowsSlaveStatesWayInstitutionsLooksMotherPyramidsStillsWhiteBelieveChurch

Famous John Henrik Clarke Quotes

“If you expect the present day school system to give history to you, you are dreaming. This, we have to do ourselves. The Chinese didn't go out in the world and beg people to teach Chinese studies or let them teach Chinese studies. The Japanese didn't do that either. People don't beg other people to restore their history; they do it themselves.”

PeopleIfsWorldGivingDreamSchoolTeachStudyChinesePresent DaySchool System
Book:Africans at the crossroads: notes for an African world revolution
Create image

“The population of African people in the United States is far in excess of six small European nations. Where we are going? We have to go back as best we can to where slavery and colonialism took us from. And they took us from a concept of nation management and nation maintenance. We have been so long away from home we unfortunately have forgotten how we ruled states before the foreigners got there.”

PeopleLongHas BeensStatesHomeNationsUnitedUnited StatesSixConceptsManagementSlaveryForgottenPopulationExcessColonialismForeignersMaintenanceAway From Home
Author:John Henrik Clarke
Create image

“The southern white Baptists now want to integrate with the black Baptist church. I say that would be the end of it. In the first place, most white southern Baptists can't preach, their intentions are not that good and we make a different joyful noise unto the Lord than white people. When we say, "Lord Jesus, personal savior", we may not mean the same thing as what they mean.”

PeopleWantFirstsMayMeanDifferentEndsWould BeJesusBlackChurchWhiteLordIntentionNoiseSouthernSaviorJoyfulBaptistsIntegratingSouthern Baptist
Author:John Henrik Clarke
Create image

“We probably have, right now, after the Civil Rights movement - and this was very unfortunate - the most glaring time of giving up on Africa, saying we're Americans. We are Americans. I'm not arguing that point. So are the Italians. So are the Germans. So are the Jews. We're Americans with an historical geography of origins outside of the United States as all people, maybe except the indigenous Americans who came here so long ago, who have generations of people whose historical origins are right here but whose initial historical origins are somewhere in Asia.”

PeopleGivingLongStatesUnitedUnited StatesRightsGenerationsMovementRight NowGiving UpHistoricalJewArguingCivil RightsLong AgoUnfortunateAsiaInitialsIndigenousGeographyCivil Rights Movement
Author:John Henrik Clarke
Create image

“I have gone up in the Pyramids and the stones are so close together you can't force a playing card between them and (they are) in perfect alignment. So those people must have had some hydraulics or something. You take 20 men, put them around a big stone, their legs would get in the way. Even if they could lift it, 20 pairs of legs hitting against each other would throw it off balance. And they would not have it in exact alignment. Not even a fraction of an inch off.”

PeopleIfsMenWayBigsTogetherForcePerfectGoneBalanceStonesLegsCardsLiftsPairsInchesHittingPyramidsFractionsAlignmentPlaying Cards
Author:John Henrik Clarke
Create image

“I'm one of the people who believes that our losses were greater than our gains. Because before the Civil Rights movement we had entrepreneurship in the black community. Right now, in Harlem, if I wanted to get a shoe repaired, I would have a hard time finding a black shoe repairman. On near about every third corner, you could find a decent black barber, decent black laundry, had restaurants in the neighborhood that were open 24 hours. The food was good at 3 o'clock in the morning as at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.”

PeopleIfsBelieveHardWantedBlackCommunityHoursLossMorningGreaterRightsMovementRight NowFindingsGainsThirdsShoesCornersCivil RightsEntrepreneurshipClockDecentRestaurantsHard TimesNeighborhoodAfternoonCivil Rights MovementLaundryHarlemBlack CommunityBarbers
Author:John Henrik Clarke
Create image

“People get overwhelmed with folklore as fact. Take the Exodus. The Exodus did not occur. It could not have occurred. Wasn't necessary for it to occur. The Jews walked into Africa over a 16-mile land until they built the Suez Canal - that land is still there. Why would they have to leave by the sea. They didn't come by the sea. Certain people think you are against their religion when you use common sense.”

PeopleThinkingStillsFactsUseCertainCommonSeaLandBuiltJewMilesCommon SenseOverwhelmedFolkloreCanalsExodus
Author:John Henrik Clarke
Create image

“It is too often forgotten that when the Europeans gained enough maritime skills and gunpowder to conquer most of the world, they not only colonized the bulk of the world's people but they colonized the interpretation of history itself. Human history was rewritten to favor them at the expense of other people. The roots of modern racism can be traced to this conquest and colonization.”

PeopleWorldHumansEnoughCultureJusticeModernSkillsDiversityRacismRootsSocial JusticeForgottenFavorsConquerInterpretationExpensesConquestHuman HistoryColonizationGunpowderMaritime
Author:John Henrik Clarke
Create image

“Africans in the United States must remember that the slave ships brought no West Indians, no Caribbeans, no Jamaicans or Trinidadians or Barbadians to this hemisphere. The slave ships brought only African people and most of us took the semblance of nationality from the places where slave ships dropped us off.”

PeopleStatesRememberUnitedUnited StatesSlaveWestShipsIndianNationalityCaribbeanHemisphereSemblanceJamaicansSlave ShipsTrinidadians
Author:John Henrik Clarke
Create image