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Harlem Quotes

Browse 157 quotes about Harlem.

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Harlem Quotes

“She got off the train, thinking that she never felt really human until she reached Harlem and thus got away from the hostility in the eyes of the white women who stared at her on the downtown streets and in the subway. Escaped from the openly appraising looks of the white men whose eyes seemed to go through her clothing to her long brown legs. On the trains their eyes came at her furtively from behind newspapers, or half-concealed under hatbrims or partly shielded by their hands. And there was a warm, moist look about their eyes that made her want to run. These other folks feel the same way, she thought—that once they are freed from the contempt in the eyes of the downtown world, they instantly become individuals. Up here they are no longer creatures labeled simply 'colored' and therefore all alike. She noticed that once the crowd walked the length of the platform and started up the stairs toward the street, it expanded in size. The same people who had made themselves small on the train, even on the platform, suddenly grew so large they could hardly get up the stairs to the street together. She reached the street at the very end of the crowd and stood watching them as they scattered in all directions, laughing and talking to each other.”

RacePersonalityRacismIndividualityAfrican AmericansBlacksHarassmentHarlemSexual Harassment
Book:The Street
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“Oh, Lawd, I done forgot Harlem! Say, you colored folks, hungry a long time in 135th Street--they got swell music at the Waldorf-Astoria. It sure is a mighty nice place to shake hips in, too. There's dancing after supper in a big warm room. It's cold as hell on Lenox Avenue. All you've had all day is a cup of coffee. Your pawnshop overcoat's a ragged banner on your hungry frame. You know, downtown folks are just crazy about Paul Robeson! Maybe they'll like you, too, black mob from Harlem. Drop in at the Waldorf this afternoon for tea. Stay to dinner. Give Park Avenue a lot of darkie color--free for nothing!”

RacePovertyRacismHungerAfrican AmericansBlacksRace RelationsHarlemHotelsWaldorf Astoria
Book:Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings
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“Activists from all over the world--the known & the unknown--would find their way to the Kochiyamas' Fri & Sat night open houses. 'People were everywhere, eating, talking, laughing, spilling out into the hallway [outside their apt]. People were even int he bathroom. You couldn't close the front door bc there were so many people inside,' recalled Herman Ferguson. The Kochiyamas' apt also became a central meeting place for the Movement.”

HarlemBlack LiberationPolitical OrganizingMovement BuildingYuri KochiyamaThe Movement
Book:Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama
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“Lieutenant Thomas R. Gilligan, thirty-seven, was off duty and out of uniform, checking out TVs in an electronics store. He went to investigate the commotion and stopped James Powell, a ninth grader who had joined the mob of angry students. Powell was unarmed, according to witnesses. Gilligan maintained that the boy flashed a knife. He shot him three times. Two days later, Harlem erupted. Pierce told Carney, "You have the people who are angry. Justifably so. And then there's the police force. How are they going to defend this shit? Again! And city hall and the activists. And in the way back of the room, you can barely hear a little voice, and that's the family. They've lost a son. Somebody has to speak for them." "They're going to sue?" "Sue and win. You know they ain't going to fire the bastard." Sermon crept into his voice here. "What kind of message will that send--that their police force is accountable? We'll sue, and it will take years, and the city will pay because millions and millions are still cheaper than putting a true price on killing a black boy.”

RacismPoliceAfrican AmericansBlacksPolice BrutalityHarlemRiotsInstitutional RacismUprisings
Book:Harlem Shuffle
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“I pass for a hypersensitive, reclusive neurotic, which I may well be, but I hope the year won't come when my anxieties and fatigue will destroy my love of this life, of all the things that inspire me--a line of music, a face in a Vermeer portrait, a character in an opera, or a model born in Harlem.”

YearsWellsMayCharacterFacesBornLinesInspireAnxietyModelsThis LifeOperaPortraitsFatigueNeuroticHarlemVermeer
Book:Catalog of the Exhibition Held at the Costume
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“A long time ago, I took a walk down a street in Harlem in New York City. I came upon a man who asked me for a dollar. He had asked a few other people before me, but they only passed him by without glancing his way. I stopped and handed the man some money. As I began to turn away, he reached out and shook my hand. He looked me in the eyes and said, "I will bless you." Now, I'm not saying that was God Himself. But how do we know that it wasn't someone working for him, walking around in disguise, just to see what we would do?”

PeopleKnowsMenWayLongSaidHandsEyeTurnsWalksCitiesStreetsNew YorkHe ManWalkingLong TimeDollarsBlessNew York CityDisguiseLong Time AgoHarlem
Book:The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey
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“In Harlem, for instance, all of the stores are owned by white people, all of the buildings are owned by white people. The black people are just there - paying rent, buying the groceries; but they don't own the stores, clothing stores, food stores, any kind of stores; don't even own the homes that they live in. They are all owned by outsiders, and for these run-down apartment dwellings, the black man in Harlem pays more money than the man down in the rich Park Avenue section.”

PeopleMenKindHomeRunningPoliticsBlackWhitePayEconomyRichBuildingHe ManStoresInstanceParksLiberalismBuyingBlack PeopleClothingsMore MoneyOutsidersApartmentSectionsAvenuesDwellingGroceriesHarlemPaying Rent
Author:Malcolm X
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“Well, I couldn't play an instrument. I'd just stand up front and announce the numbers. They had me sing a little, but that was a horrible mistake. I can't carry a tune in a bucket. We played black theaters and nightclubs all over hell. One-nighters. Apollo Theater in Harlem and the Earle Theater in Philly - That was big time for blacks.”

WellsLittlesI CanPlayBigsSportsBlackNumbersMistakeHellFrontsTheaterInstrumentsAthleteHorribleTunesApolloBucketsHarlemNightclubsHorrible Mistakes
Author:Jesse Owens
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“I'm not guilty. You're the one that's guilty. The lawmakers, the politicians, the Colombian drug lords, all you who lobby against making drugs legal. Just like you did with alcohol during Prohibition. You're the one who's guilty. I mean, c'mon, let's kick the ballistics here: ain't no Uzi's made in Harlem. Not one of us in here owns a poppy field. This thing is bigger than Nino Brown. This is big business. This is the American way.”

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Author:Wesley Snipes
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“I grew up in Harlem. My grandmother was one of the best cooks around, but the first thing she did on Sunday mornings when she started cooking a daylong meal was to take a big block of lard from the back of the refrigerator and throw it into the pan. I know how Hispanics buy their food, and it is not always nutritious.”

KnowsFirstsBigsMorningKnow HowGrewGrew UpCookingBlockCooksMealsGrandmotherSundayMy GrandmotherRefrigeratorsHarlemSunday MorningLard
Author:Richard Carmona
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“The thing that surprised me the most is just how much money women that weren't rich were paying for their hair. When you're in a beauty parlor in Harlem next to abandoned buildings and somebody's paying five grand for a weave, that's a bit much. I think this is, in a weird way, part of the health care debate. It's like, hmm, there's people with $2000 weaves that could have bought health care with that weave money.”

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Author:Chris Rock
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“Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean was all smiles, well smirks, after picking up the endorsement of former Vice President Al Gore at a rally in Harlem ... Gore went on to praise Dean for taking a tough anti-war stance before the invasion of Iraq and he praised Dean supporters in hopes that will ease his concerns over lack of foreign policy experience, and his lack of support among blacks and Latinos, and his hot temperament, and perceived arrogance, and policy flip-flops, and campaign glitches. Well, there's a lot going on here.”

WellsWarPresidentSupportPolicyToughConcernPraiseHotIraqVicesCampaignsFormerEaseArroganceAlsAnti WarForeign PolicyGovernorsSupporterTemperamentInvasionLatinoGoreFlipDeanVice PresidentStanceHarlemEndorsementsVermontFlip FlopsSmirkAll SmilesGlitchesLack Of Support
Author:Jon Stewart
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“I've always thought it would be fun to update "Hansel and Gretel." I'd have these white parents in the suburbs with an income of fifty or sixty thousand dollars. Daddy loses his job, and the wicked stepmother says, "We could get along, we could keep our Mastercharge, if you'd just get rid of those shitty kids." Finally the father hires a limo and tells the driver, "Drop 'em off on Lenox Avenue in Harlem at two in the morning." These two little white kids land there. They're menaced. And this supposedly nice black lady says, "Would you like some candy?"”

IfsLittlesTwoWould BeKidsJobsFatherFunParentBlackLosesWhiteMorningNiceLandThousandDollarsIncomeFiftyWickedEmsDriversSixtyCandyDaddyAvenuesSuburbsHarlemUpdatesStepmothersLimosHansel And GretelWicked Stepmothers
Author:Stephen King
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“People are too afraid of uptown. A lot of people will tell you, like, "Don't go to Harlem. You can never go there. 'Cause as soon as you get there, they kill you." That's what people think. As soon as you arrive in Harlem, someone just stabs you in the face right away. That's people's image of Harlem: just everyone standing around waiting for lost white people to kill all day. "Did you see any? I didn't either."”

PeopleThinkingFunnyFacesLostCausesWaitingWhiteComedyStandingHarlemUptown
Author:Louis C. K.
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“If the poem is so moving that even if you have no experience in that particular setting be it 1920's Harlem let's say. You still are so moved that you can put yourself in that position. That means that the writer has managed to go beyond the personal and touch the humanity in all of us and it's really a blast to read it because I realize how that this does hold true for the truly great poems.”

IfsMeanDoeStillsMovingHumanityRealizingPositionParticularMovedSettingSettingsBlastHarlem
Author:Rita Dove
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