“Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall.” IfsCountryMomentsFallAirEnglandSlaverySlaveBreatheOur CountryThat MomentLungsShacklesSlavery Freedom Author:William Cowper
“I think the important thing to understand first and foremost about Michael Jackson is that he was the international emblem of the African American blues spiritual impulse that goes back through slavery - Jim Crow, Jane Crow, up to the present moment, through a Louis Armstrong, through a Ma Rainey, through a Bessie Smith, all the way to John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone.” ThinkingWayFirstsImportantMomentsSpiritualSlaveryImportant ThingsInternationalAfrican AmericanImpulsePresent MomentJaneCrowFranklinArmstrongJim CrowEmblemsNinaColtrane Author:Cornel West
“Ah! the curse of slavery, as the common phrase goes, has fallen not merely on the black but perhaps at this moment still more upon the white, because it has warped his sense of truth and has degraded his moral nature. The position and the treatment of the blacks, however, really improve from year to year; while the whites do not seem to advance in enlightenment.” YearsStillsMomentsSeemsBlackWhiteCommonMoralPositionEnlightenmentSlaveryCurseFallenPhrasesTreatment Book:America of the Fifties: Letters of Fredrika Bremer Source: America of the Fifties: Letters of Fredrika Bremer