Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“If you really wanted to understand this country, this alleged two-hundred-year attempt to establish a society on Enlightenment values, I could think of no better place to study that effort than from the perspective of those whom that society excluded and pillaged in order to bring those values into practice.”

Quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Book:We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
Create image

Work

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy

This book is a compilation of essays that delve into the political and social dynamics of the United States during a specific eight-year period. The author examines the complexities of race, identity, and power, offering insights into the political climate of the time. more

Author

Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American writer known for his insightful social commentary and literary works. His writings often focus on themes of race, history, and social justice, with his most famous work being 'Between the World and Me', which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. more

You May Also Like

“Having voted for independence, they now needed to discuss and vote on the text of a declaration of independence that Thomas Jefferson had drawn up. The text Jefferson had written was read aloud, and throughout the day the delegates made changes. They deleted about twenty-five percent of the text, thinking it not applicable, or too emotive, or beside the point.”

InspirationalHistoryConstitutionAmerican HistoryWorld HistoryUs HistoryDeclaration Of IndependenceThomas JeffersonJohn Adams
Book:John Adams: Independence Forever
Create image

“In 1890...the Magnolia State passed the Mississippi Plan, a dizzying array of poll taxes, literacy tests, understanding clauses, newfangled voter registration rules, and "good character" clauses—all intentionally racially discriminatory but dressed up in the genteel garb of bringing "integrity" to the voting booth.”

RacismAmerican HistoryWhite SupremacyUs HistorySuffrageVoter Suppression
Book:One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
Create image

“Bilbo was pointing to the power of the literacy test and understanding clause, which were tailor-made for societies that systematically refused to educate millions of their citizens and ensured that the bulk of the population remained functionally illiterate...for most of the twentieth century, many Jim Crow school systems did not have high schools for African Americans.”

EducationRacismAmerican HistoryLiteracyUs HistorySuffrageVoter Suppression
Book:One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
Create image