Quotessence
Home / Authors / Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleThinkingIfsPoetryBlackPoemWantWritingNeedsAfrican AmericansBlacksKnowsNinaShouldWorldHumansBookLifeLovePoet

Famous Nikki Giovanni Quotes

“It was wrong. It was wrong to pay the same dime yet have to walk to the back of the bus. It was wrong to have to pass a "white" school to go to a "colored" school. It was wrong to have Colored and White signs. It was wrong that Emmett Till was murdered. It was wrong that the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was dynamited. It was wrong that Medgar Evers was shot in the back and bled to death in his own driveway. And whatever was not right could be, if not corrected, then certainly reproved by people with kinder hearts, better minds and the courage to speak out for their beliefs.”

PoetryRacePoemRacismPrejudiceAfrican AmericansBlacksRace RelationsWhitesJim Crow
Book:Acolytes
Create image

“I always thought that would be really neat if black people ever got control of the United States we would, of course, tear down some of the statues because we just don't like them...like all of Richmond would probably not have a statue standing.”

AmericaUnited StatesUsaAfrican AmericansBlacksStatuesUsMonumentsSculptures
Book:Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking At The Harlem Renaissance Through Poems
Create image

“Three days later when his body was found they wanted to bury him in Mississippi. I wanted him home in Chicago. I wanted the world to see what they did to my boy. I wanted Emmett's death to be the last death. I wanted Emmett's death to kill American innocence. I wanted Emmett's death to be not only the death of my boy but the death of innocence. I wanted Mississippi, I wanted America, to give us justice. And I prayed that I would live long enough to see it.”

ViolenceRacismMurderAfrican AmericansBlacksEmmett TillRacial ViolenceMamie Till
Book:Acolytes
Create image