“I personally have never trusted museums. ... It is because museums, broadly speaking, live off of the art and artifacts of others, often art and artifacts that have been obtained by dubious means. But they also manipulate whatever it is they present to the public; hence, until Judy Chicago, in the 1970s ... few women artists were hung in any major museum. Indian artists? Artifacts only, please. Black artists? Something musical, maybe? And so forth.” MeanHas BeensArtArtistBlackPleaseMajorsMusicalIndianMuseumsChicagoTrustedHungManipulateNever TrustDubiousArtifactsWoman Artist Author:Alice Walker
“Coming from the South, I just felt you had to work just a little bit harder. It was not going to be handed to you. I’d get the letters from all the major schools but no one came out to talk to me face to face until this small, dominant black school, Mississippi State Valley University sent a coach out to me. I had a chance to talk to him and he said, ‘Hey Jerry, we’re going to be doing some great things at Mississippi Valley State University and we would love to have you there.’” LittlesSaidStatesSchoolFacesFeltBitsBlackChanceMajorsLittle BitLettersHarderSouthUniversityCoachesGreat ThingsHeyValleysDominantFace To FaceMississippiTalk To MeJerryMississippi State Author:Jerry Rice
“A major boom in real stock prices in the US after Black Tuesday brought them halfway back to 1929 levels by 1930. This was followed by a second crash, another boom from 1932 to 1937, and a third crash. Speculative bubbles do not end like a short story, novel, or play. There is no final denouement that brings all the strands of a narrative into an impressive final conclusion. In the real world, we never know when the story is over.” KnowsWorldRealEndsPlayStoriesBlackLevelsNovelMajorsThirdsFinalsConclusionNarrativeReal WorldShort StoryBubblesCrashImpressiveHalfway1930sTuesdayStrandsStock PriceDenouement Author:Robert J. Shiller
“Irving Wallace wrote a bestselling novel, The Man, in the 1960s about a black man becoming president of the United States. We thought that such a possibility was thousands of years in the future. Some people may still have some difficulty with the idea, but that's a major cultural meme shift.” PeopleMenYearsMayStillsIdeasStatesBlackPresidentUnitedUnited StatesNovelPossibilityHe ManBecomingMajorsDifficulty1960sMemesBecoming President Author:Wayne Dyer
“There is no doubt that the issue of race is always present in American politics and in the politics of any multiracial society. There is also no doubt that for some people it is an element in the manifested hostility to Obama. But I don't think it is the major theme at all. Obama is right when he reminds people: By the way, I was black before the election.” PeopleThinkingWayBlackRaceIssuesDoubtElementsMajorsElectionThemeNo DoubtAmerican PoliticsHostilityMultiracial Author:Al Gore
“NBC was trying to convert all of their local programming to color right away to encourage the sale of the sets, so I barely remember working in black and white, although I do know that I did do it, but there was not a major difference, though.” KnowsTryingRememberBlackDifferencesWhiteColorMajorsLocalsProgrammingBlack And WhiteConvertingNbc Author:Jim Henson
“If the churches don't move, much of the community won't move. We've got a situation in which a black church is still a major institution in the black community where 55 percent of the black folk attend and over 75 pass through its doors.” IfsStillsMovingBlackCommunityChurchSituationDoorsMajorsPercentInstitutionsFolksBlack CommunityBlack Church Author:Cornel West
“Usually we look at it like, "Oh, black people couldn't vote in Mississippi because they had to take a literacy test." But one of the things you learn in the film is that there were major consequences for even trying to vote. You could be killed for trying to vote. You could definitely be fired from your job and many were, which is why so few black Mississippians even attempted to register early on. They put your name in the newspaper if you tried to register to vote.” PeopleIfsTryingLooksJobsFilmNamesBlackMajorsConsequenceTestsVoteNewspapersBlack PeopleLiteracyRegisterMississippi Author:Stanley Nelson Jr.
“We've actually seen Black man murders [in] many a major city in the United States - New York City, St. Louis, Missouri, from Cleveland to Baltimore. It was those sorts of incidents that were very much prevalent in the forefront of that jury's conscience that allowed them to believe that this man [O.J. Simpson] could have been set up.” MenBelieveHas BeensStatesBlackUnitedCitiesUnited StatesNew YorkMajorsConscienceMurderNew York CityCould Have BeenIncidentsJuryBaltimoreClevelandMissouri Author:Sterling K. Brown
“In 2016, the conversation of the black experience is so broad, and it's very raw. I mean, c'mon, we have a black president. That's a major thing, and there are so many other significant occurrences that have come from the '60s and '70s up to now.” MeanBlackPresidentConversationMajorsSignificantBroads Author:Ali Shaheed Muhammad
“There was a Yale even before Larry [Kramer] and I got there, and there were three designations of students: "white shoe," "brown shoe," and "black shoe." "White shoe" people were kind of the ur-preppies from high-class backgrounds. "Brown shoe" people were kind of the high school student-council presidents who were snatched up and brushed up a little bit to be sent out into the world. "Black shoe" people were beyond the pale. They were chemistry majors and things like that.” PeopleWorldKindLittlesSchoolThreeBitsBlackPresidentWhiteClassStudentsMajorsLittle BitHigh SchoolShoesBackgroundsBrownChemistryPaleCouncilLarryYaleDesignationHigh School StudentsKramerHigh ClassWhite ShoesStudent Council Author:Kevin Sessums
“We have seven and a half times as many people in prison. And we have eight times as many black women in prison now as we did in 1981, when I left the White House. So that's been one of the major concerns I've had as a non-lawyer, to criticize the American justice system, which is highly biased against black people and poor people. And it still is.” PeopleStillsHouseLeftBlackJusticeWhitePoorHalfMajorsConcernPrisonSevenEightLawyerCriticizeWhite HouseBlack PeopleBlack WomenPoor PeopleJustice SystemBiasedHalf TimeAmerican Justice Author:Jimmy Carter
“What I found fascinating was just how quickly the best of the young Negro League players were drafted into the major leagues once Branch Rickey broke the color line by hiring Jackie Robinson. It was clear that all of the major league owners already knew the talents of the black ballplayers that they had refused to let into their league.” YoungFoundBlackLinesClearPlayerTalentColorMajorsBrokeLeagueBranchesFascinatingOwnersHiringJackieMajor League Author:Walter Dean Myers
“Major problem for Black women, and all people of color, when we are challenged to oppose anti-Semitism, is our profound skepticism that white people can actually be oppressed.” PeopleProblemBlackWhiteColorMajorsProfoundOppressedBlack WomenAnti SemitismScepticismMajor Problems Author:Barbara Smith