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Black History Quotes

Browse 406 quotes about Black History.

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Black History Quotes

“But despite the scarcity of confrontation with whites in our neighborhood, race and racism permeated every aspect of our lives. Our parents taught us that in order to succeed, we 'had to be twice as good as white folks.' We were constantly being prepared to enter a world dominated by whites.”

Civil RightsBlack HistoryUrban Politics
Book:Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
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“The SNCC base of operation, at the corner of Jackson and High Streets, was in the heart of the black community in Montgomery. I don't remember too much else about the city, but I'll always remember that corner. There were hundreds of young people behind police barricades of some sort. Lots of college students, some white, from up North, and some local black folks and college students. The whole Selma-to-Montgomery push, and this ancillary thrust by SNCC in Montgomery, was because on the other side of that barricade there were white folks who had shown they would stop at nothing, including violence, to protect white supremacy.”

Civil RightsBlack HistoryCivil Rights MovementUrban Politics
Book:Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
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“I remembered how tough it was getting black people in large tenements to come together to build a playground. The enemy was not the Klan by the inside-outside lock that racism and classism had on the minds of the people: It operated from the inside through self-hate and self-doubt, and from the outside through the police, carnivorous landlords, and the welfare system.”

Civil RightsBlack HistoryUrban Politics
Book:Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
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“We were still confined to that corner. More and more people joined us, some black and some white. On the second day, we awoke to learn that somebody must have told Martin Luther King that things were getting out of hand in Montgomery, because rumor had it that he left the line of march from Selma to join us in the hood. Despite myself, I was thrilled at the prospect of marching with King. I knew this was SNCC turf, and I was now with SNCC, but how can you not be thrilled with the prospect of being so close to the big man himself?”

Civil RightsBlack HistoryUrban Politics
Book:Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
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“Organizing a working majority proved harder than we thought because we couldn't get a quorum. But one day in December, twelve people showed up, eight from our coalition. So we changed the quorum to eight. You gotta do what you gotta do--this was war, one faction against many others who wanted control of the land.”

Black HistoryUrban Politics
Book:Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power
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“Oh Maker, what did they really say about your black creation? I think you made a beautiful work of art on a canvass of rebellion. Hey, Maker! We are still selling out!”

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Author:Chinonye J. Chidolue
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“You see, for much of Britain, America is where racism happens, and Britain is then by definition not racist because, you know, 'it's not as racist as America.' This is a totally moot and rather idiotic point, as no two countries have the same systems of social control, thus no two countries in essence have the same racisms. While British liberals may praise all the Dr Kings in the world, this does not necessarily stop them from reproducing and/or administering the domestic racial hierarchy effectively.”

AmericaRaceBritainSocial ChangeBlack HistorySystemic RacismRacial Hierarchy
Book:Natives Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire / Black Listed / Black and British: A Forgotten History
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“In fact, just for the sake of understanding, if we measure the amount of blood and sweat that actually went into the making of America, we’d find that the contributions of the blacks far outweigh the contributions of the whites!”

RacismSlaveryAmerican HistoryAfrican AmericansBlack HistoryAmerican CultureSocial StudiesAmericanBlack History MonthHistory Of America
Book:Hometown Human: To Live for Soil and Society
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“American slavery was specifically racist slavery. It could not exist apart from racism, and could not be separated from it. Slavery was a massive institution, but its evil was only enabled by the constraints of law and power. Change the law, and you can end the slaver, for the slavery rested on law. But racism rests in the heart and mind. You can change laws, but changing hearts is a whole different matter. Once the slavery was taken away, the racism still existed. The hearts of millions of whiles hated and despised blacks just as before, only now even more so. Now they would have the added insult of an occupying government and military force attempting to make them live as equals - politically at the very least. If the racism remained, unrepentant and unhealed - and it certainly did - the evil would only manifest in a new way.”

RacismSlaveryBlack HistoryAmerican SlaveryWar Between The StatesThe Civil War
Book:The Problem of Slavery in Christian America
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“Vagrancy laws and other laws defining activities such as "mischief" and "insulting gestures" as crimes were enforced vigorously against blacks. The aggressive enforcement of these criminal offenses opened up an enormous market for convict leasing.”

RacismAfrican AmericansBlack HistoryRacism In AmericaConvictsCriminologyForced LaborBlack AmericansFor Profit Prisons
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“Those Garveyites I knew could never understand why I liked them but would never follow them, and I pitied them too much to tell them that they could never achieve their goal, that Africa was owned by the imperial powers of Europe, that their lives were alien to the mores of the natives of Africa, that they were people of the West and would for ever be so until they either merged with the West or perished.”

African AmericansBlack HistoryBlack History MonthGarveyitesBack To Africa Movement
Book:Black Boy
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“During the American Revolution, the British offered emancipation to any enslaved person who fought on their side. This military tactic infuriated the Patriots and caused pandemonium on the southern plantations as thousands of slaves escaped and joined the British Army or sought refuge behind enemy lines.”

American HistoryBlack HistoryAmerican RevolutionColonial AmericaAmerican Revolutionary War
Book:Discovering Black America: From the Age of Exploration to the Twenty-First Century
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“Being a spy during the american revolution was arole that a black person was well suited for. as the "invisible race" it was easy for blacks to gain access to information that would help either the Patriots or the Loyalists, because many on both sides did not believe that a black person had the cunning or intellect to be a spy. Black housekeepers, servants, cooks, and maids were often present when valuable information about troop positions, troop movements, and artillery and supply routes were discussed.”

American HistoryBlack HistoryAmerican RevolutionAmerican Revolutionary War
Author:Linda Tarrant-Reid
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“The first newspapers written, edited, and published by African Americans appeared in the northern United States and Canada beginning in the early 1800s. They focused primarily on issues that were important to the black community, including the abolition of slavery and the rights of free blacks. Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm published the first black-owned and operated newspaper in America for African Americans. Freedom's Journal covered international, national, and regional news and provided its readership with useful information.”

American HistoryBlack HistoryAmerican RevolutionAmerican Revolutionary War
Book:Discovering Black America: From the Age of Exploration to the Twenty-First Century
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“They like the places where we hurt. They use it against us. The words of the girl, my other self from the dream place, strikes with sudden understanding. The places where we hurt. Where we hurt. Not just me, all of us, colored folk everywhere, who carry our wounds with us, sometimes open for all to see, but always so much more buried and hidden deep. I remember the songs that come with all those visions. Songs full of hurt. Songs full of sadness and tears. Songs pulsing with pain. A righteous anger and cry for justice. But not hate. They ain't the same thing. Never was. These monsters want to pervert that. Turn it to their own ends. Because that's what they do. Twist you all up so that you forget yourself. Make you into something like them. Only I can't forget, because all those memories always with me, showing me the way.”

PainHurtJusticeFreedomAngerSlaveryBlack Lives MatterBlack HistoryBlmAntiracism
Book:Ring Shout
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“Now your people! Ya'll got a good reason to hate. All the wrongs been done to you and yours? A people who been whipped and beaten, hunted and hounded, suffered so grievously at their hands. You have every reason to despise them. To loathe them for centuries of depravations. That hate would be so pure, so sure and righteous - so strong!”

HateSocial JusticeSlaveryBlack Lives MatterBlack HistoryLoathingAntiracismHate CrimesBipoc
Book:Ring Shout
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“Black churches viewed education and litercay as paramount to the success of the African American community...."the vast majorities of HBCUs were founded to be seminaries and divinity schools...schools in church basements evolved into HBCUs: Morehouse College arose from the basement of Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta Georgia; Selman College, from the basement of Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta; and Tuskegee Institute, out of a room near the local AME Zion church.”

LoveGodHateChurchFateAmerican HistoryBlack History
Book:The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song
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“Stories of Ayuba's Muslim religious practices - running away to find private spaces in which to say his daily prayers - led to his imprisonment. During his captivity, Ayuba wrote a letter in Arabic to his father in Africa, explaining the desperation of his situation and pleading for help. The letter made its way into the hands of James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, which began as an antislavery colony.”

LoveGodHateChurchFateAmerican HistoryBlack History
Book:The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song
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“Virginia even passed a law in 1667 stating that 'the Conferrin of Baptisme doth not allow that Condition of the slave as to his Bondage or freedome," Thus, when Anglican missionaries arrived in Britain's New World colonies in the 1670s with the intent to convert those enslaved on plantations, they faced opposition and even violence from white colonists who wanted to keep Christianity exclusive to free white people.”

LoveGodHateChurchFateAmerican HistoryBlack History
Book:Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World
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“Anglican missionaries therefore had to articulate a vision of Christianity that brought religion to enslaved men and women while at the same time placating their owners. The centered it on race rather than religion...Missionaries sought to convince planters that Christianity would not foment rebellion. Instead, it would make the enslaved docile, hardworking, and easier to manage.”

LoveGodHateChurchFateAmerican HistoryBlack History
Book:Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World
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“Black men had fewer opportunities to become wealthy and were specifically encourages, often by the US government, to look to marriage, rather than wealth, as a source of social status. The government hoped that by linking social status to black men's role as husbands and providers it could minimize its own economic responsibility for the newly free African Americans - especially for black women and children.”

MarriageBlack HistorySocial HistoryBlack Wealth
Book:You'll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love
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“Go to work! Go to work in the morn of a new creation... until you have... reached the height of self-progress, and from that pinnacle bestow upon the world a civilization of your own.”

WorldSelfBlackProgressCreationCivilizationHeightBlack HistoryPinnacle
Book:The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Vol. V: September 1922-August 1924
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“Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.”

HumansMayCultureGivenSexBlackHuman BeingsRightsDiversitySocial JusticeInherentBlack HistoryBlack History MonthComplexionBlack History Month Inspirational
Book:The Words of Garrison: A Centennial Selection (1805-1905) of Characteristic Sentiments from the Writings of William Lloyd Garrison
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