Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Maya Angelou

Quote by Maya Angelou

Work

A Song Flung Up to Heaven

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was an American author, poet, playwright, actress, and lecturer, known for her profound exploration of race, gender, and culture in her work. Her autobiographical works, including 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,' which detailed her early life of poverty and sexual exploitation, have gained widespread acclaim. more

You May Also Like

“Such proposals may seem impractical and even incredible. But what is truly impractical and incredible is that America, with its enormous wealth, has allowed Watts to become what it is and that a commission empowered to study this explosive situation should come up with answers that boil down to voluntary actions by business and labor, new public relations campaigns for municipal agencies, and information-gathering for housing, fair employment, and welfare departments. The Watts manifesto is a response to realities that the McCone Report is barely beginning to grasp. Like the liberal consensus which it embodies and reflects, the commission's imagination and political intelligence appear paralyzed by the hard facts of Negro deprivation it has unearthed, and it lacks the political will to demand that the vast resources of contemporary America be used to build a genuinely great society that will finally put an end to these deprivations. And what is most impractical and incredible of all is that we may very well continue to teach impoverished, segregated, and ignored Negroes that the only way they can get the ear of America is to rise up in violence.”

“In the middle of May an L.A. cop stopped a black man named Leonard Deadwyler for speeding through Watts. He stuck his gun in the driver's-side window — 'to attrack the driver's attention,' he later testified. He also claimed the car suddenly lurched forward, causing his gun to discharge. Leonard Deadwyler slumped into the lap of his wife and muttered his last words — 'But she's having a baby' — as his two-year-old son looked on from the backseat. He had been speeding her to the nearest hospital, miles away; there was no hospital in Watts — an area twice the size of Manhattan.”

“John Murphy amefariki dunia. Ndege aliyotoka nayo hapa, Dar es Salaam, ndiyo aliyotoka nayo Paris na ndiyo hiyo iliyoanguka katika mazingira ya kutatanisha. Watu waliobahatika kuing’amua fununu hii ni wachache na ambao hivi sasa hawajiwezi kabisa, akiwemo kamishna wetu wa kanda Profesa Mafuru. Profesa yuko mahututi. Ameshtuka baada ya kusikia taarifa hizo katika redio ya hapa. Yuko chini ya uangalizi mkali wa madaktari. Mungu aiweke roho ya John Murphy, shujaa wa karne, mahali pema peponi. Bwana alitoa na Bwana ametwaa. Jina la Bwana lihimidiwe.”