“In the South, prior to the Civil Rights movement and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, democracy was the rule. The majority of people were white, and the white majority had little or no respect for any rights which the black minority had relative to property, or even to their own lives. The majority - the mob and occasionally the lynch mob - ruled.” PeopleLittlesBlackWhiteDemocracyRightsMovementCivilizationMajorityPropertySouthCivil RightsMinoritiesRelativeCivil Rights MovementNo RespectCivil Rights Act Book:The Terrible Truth about Liberals Source: The Terrible Truth about Liberals
“Martin Luther King Jr's agenda was not to help Negroes overcome American apartheid in the south. It was to make America democracy a better place, where everyday people, from poor people who were white and red and yellow and black and brown, would be able to live lives in decency and dignity.” PeopleHelpingWould BeAbleAmericaBlackWhitePoorDemocracyKingsRedDignityOvercomingSouthEverydayLive LifeBrownAgendasYellowBetter PlacePoor PeopleDecencyLutherApartheidRed And Yellow Author:Cornel West
“Frederick Douglas's agenda was an agenda, not for black people to get out of slavery. It was for America to become a better democracy. And it's spilt over for women's rights; it's split over for worker's rights and so forth.” PeopleAmericaBlackDemocracyRightsSlaveryWorkersAgendasBlack PeopleSplitsWomens RightsFrederick Douglas Author:Cornel West
“All talks about legacies of white supremacy must be tied to empowering the lives of poor and working people as a whole. The black agenda - from Frederick Douglas to A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr, Fannie Lou Hammer to Ella Baker - has always been tied to race talk inseparable from expanding possibilities of democracy, expanding empowerment of everyday people.” PeopleWholeBlackWhitePoorRaceDemocracyPossibilityKingsEmpowermentEverydayLegacyEmpoweringAgendasTiedWhite SupremacyExpandingHammersLutherInseparableSupremacyPhilipBakersFrederick Douglas Author:Cornel West
“I think at the time, my radicalization was not through growing up Chinese, but through the role that the black people were playing at the beginning of World War II, when they had started the "Double V for Victory" movement - for democracy at home as well as abroad.” PeopleThinkingWorldWellsWarHomeBlackRolesGrowing UpDemocracyGrowingMovementVictoryChineseWar Of The WorldsBlack PeopleWorld War IiWorld War I Author:Grace Lee Boggs
“The black hole in democracy is integrity. The great unspoken is integrity. When integrity is not first and foremost, it's quite palpable but not visible. It's always there. Jazz highlights it because musicians and jazz always represented a high level of integrity.” FirstsBlackLevelsDemocracyIntegrityMusicianJazzHolesVisibleUnspokenHighlightsHigh LevelBlack Hole Author:Wynton Marsalis
“Democracy is about criticism. I didn't elect Obama because he's a black; I voted for Obama because he was the right person at the time. Period. The exceptionalism of a black U.S. President is not important to me. It's what he does. And who he has at the table. And what he does to change the world - that's what's important.” WorldPersonsDoeImportantBlackPresidentDemocracyPeriodsCriticismTablesChanging The WorldWhat's ImportantRight PersonTime PeriodsExceptionalism Author:Danny Glover
“The majority of South Africans, black and white, recognize that apartheid has no future. It has to be ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. The mass campaign of defiance and other actions of our organization and people can only culminate in the establishment of democracy.” PeopleActionOrderBlackWhiteDemocracySecurityMassOrganizationMajoritySouthCampaignsEstablishmentBlack And WhiteSouth AfricaDefianceApartheidPeace And Security Author:Nelson Mandela