Best slavery & african-american Quotes

“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.”

Thinking Way Firsts Important Moments Spiritual Slavery Important Things International African American Impulse Present Moment Jane Crow Franklin Armstrong Jim Crow Emblems Nina Coltrane

Author:Cornel West

“And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery”

Children Today Black Community Half Policy Slavery African American Devastated All Black

Author:Trent Franks

“I don't think there are any pure Africans of the African Americans, but the African part of our history was pretty much taken away from us during slavery, so the 60s gave us a chance, because of the civil rights movement, to kind of re-examine and make some sort of formal connection to our African-ness.”

Thinking Kind Chance Taken Rights Movement Pure Connections Slavery Civil Rights African American Formal Civil Rights Movement

Author:Herbie Hancock

“The virtue of female slaves is wholly at the mercy of irresponsible tyrants, and women are bought and sold in our slave markets, to gratify the brutal lust of those who bear the name of Christians.”

Christian Names Virtue Bears Female Mercy Abuse Slavery Slave Lust African American Tyrants Brutal Irresponsible African American Women

Book:Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker

Source: Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker

“There are those who would keep us slipping back into the darkness of division, into the snake pit of racial hatred, of racial antagonism and of support for symbols of the struggle to keep African-Americans in bondage.”

War Darkness Support Struggle Racism Hatred Slavery Symbols African American Civil War Division Snakes Bondage Pits Slipping Antagonism

Author:Carol Moseley Braun

“To see an African-American elected president means that this country is really finally coming full circle from the birth defect of slavery.”

Mean Country President Birth Slavery Circles African American Defects Full Circle Birth Defects

Author:Condoleezza Rice

“One out of every eight prisoners in the world is an African American. We are warehousing people as a profit to shareholders or for benefits to communities that get to host federal prisons. It is modern slavery.”

People World Community Modern Benefits Slavery Prison Profit Eight African American Prisoner Host Shareholders Modern Slavery

Author:Randall Robinson

“I'm looking at the head of the household, and the house hasn't been run properly for a long time, ... Clinton was the first person ever to make a formal apology to black people for slavery, which was very warm and appreciated. But African-Americans haven't healed at all . The wound is still very open. And seeing the differences in how people live, it just puts salt in it- constantly . Seeing the way we're treated within these United States ... it burns you even more every day.”

“I know some African-Americans, they happen to be conservative, they're successful. They, of course, have raised their kids, and kids can't escape in school the history of slavery and all of the horrible things that happened in the past. But they weren't raised that way, and they are not raising their kids to be imprisoned by that. They're raising them to be the best they can be today, to take advantage of the opportunity that exists today.”

Knows Way Happens Kids Today School Past Courses Opportunity Successful Happened Advantage Slavery Raised Conservative Horrible African American Being The Best Horrible Things

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“I have much more confidence in my ability, or any president or any leader's ability, to mobilize the American people around a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment to help every child in poverty in this country than I am in being able to mobilize the country around providing a benefit specific to African Americans as a consequence of slavery and Jim Crow.”

People Children Country Helping Able President Ability Leader Poverty Benefits Consequence Slavery Dollars Investment African American Providing Crow Jim Crow

Author:Barack Obama

“I actually believe that some residue of discrimination would lessen, because it's my view that there is a certain percentage of the white population that stereotypes and makes assumptions about African Americans because they don't inject the history of slavery and Jim Crow into current incarceration rates, or crime rates, or poverty rates, or what have you.”

Believe Certain White Views Poverty Crime Slavery Rate Population Currents Discrimination African American Assumption Stereotype Percentages Crow Incarceration Jim Crow Crime Rates

Author:Barack Obama

“That's one of the beauties, I think, of African American life. There was this thing called slavery and adjustments were made. It literally destroyed millions, but it didn't destroy everybody and it didn't destroy the inner lives of all the people who experienced it.”

People Thinking Made Millions Slavery Destroyed Made It African American Adjustment Inner Life American Life

Author:John Edgar Wideman

“My writing is definitely influenced by and speaks to African-Americans because that is who I am. I'm black. I'm a black woman. I'm a black mother, wife, churchgoer, etc. I am the legacy of slavery.”

Writing Mother Speak Black Wife Slavery Who I Am African American Legacy Etc Black Women

Author:Michelle Singletary

“Slavery remained in the Deep South by other names - in prison programs with charges over nothing and eternal debt that threatened every African-American in the South right up through World War II. And that was after killing three-quarters of a million people, destroying cities, and creating hostility that exists to this day over the the Confederate flag and the racism it symbolizes, all brewing out of bitterness over a war that didn't have to happen.”

“"First female president." That's it, and that's nowhere near, by the way, as powerful or penetrating as the first African-American president. I mean, women, yeah, I mean, make the case that they've been victimized. But they can't put themselves in the same shoes as slavery's legacy for example. Now, women might try to make the case. Hillary [Clinton] might try to make the case about not being ought to be able to vote, but it ain't gonna fly.”

Way Trying Firsts Mean Might Able President Powerful Cases Example Ought Female Vote Yeah Slavery Clinton Shoes African American Legacy American President Female President

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“Colonization was the idea that once slavery ended African-Americans should be encouraged - or required, in some people's view - required to leave the country. It's part of an attitude toward the abolition of slavery which says America should not be a slave society, but it can never be a multiracial society. You can never have free black and white people living together.”

“We forget the conditions - not only in slavery - but after slavery, when there was this purposeful locking out of African Americans from economic opportunity. Or we forget today's incarceration rates, and educational and housing discrimination; all of these things. We pretend that everything that has happened happened long ago, and then we act as if we all now just treat each other equally, everything will be fine.”

Long Opportunity Forget Economic Slavery Rate Educational Discrimination African American Incarceration

Author:Ben H. Winters

“The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were all written by affluent white males, but to discuss them in any meaningful way, you have to bring in the roles of African Americans - the enslaved blacks - and the roles of women, who were scarcely acknowledged by those documents. You have to discuss why slavery wasn't outlawed by the Constitution, why women weren't given the votes. The Bill of Rights isn't about dead white males anymore, and it's not just about live white males either; it's about every minority group that exists.”

Vote Constitution Independence Slavery Meaningful African American Declaration Declaration Of Independence Bill Of Rights

Author:Russell Freedman

“Historically, the argument is we stole the country from the Indians. America stole the labor of African Americans for over 200 years under slavery. America took half of Mexico by force in the Mexican War. American foreign policy, the progressives say it's based on theft. Why? Because look, America is very active in the Middle East. Why? The Middle East has oil. Notice that America doesn't get involved in Haiti or Rwanda because they don't have any oil.”

War Country Policy Argument Labor Slavery African American Foreign Policy Mexican Get Involved Rwanda

Author:Dinesh D'Souza

“We started America with the sin of slavery that led right into the post-reconstruction period which was the greatest period of domestic terrorism in our country's history. Then after that, we had Jim Crow emerge and just when the Jim Crow laws were ending came the onslaught of the drug war. Well, the drug war has so perniciously effected, insidiously infected communities of color that in some ways it has come full circle, and we now have more African Americans under criminal supervision than all of the slaves in 1865. This is a profoundly unjust war.”

War Community Sin Drug Slavery Slave Terrorism African American Crow War On Drugs Jim Crow Supervision

Author:Cory Booker

“The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world: two million people. One out of every eight prisoners in the world is an African American. We are warehousing people as a profit to shareholders or for benefits to communities that get to host federal prisons. It is modern slavery. The whole future of America's black community is at risk. One out of every three young black men in Washington, D.C., is under one arm or the other of the criminal justice system. These are the continuing consequences of slavery.”

People Men World Black Community Justice Risk Modern Consequence Slavery Prison African American Prisoner Host Justice System Criminal Justice

Author:Randall Robinson

“Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable. That's one of the beauties of African American life. There was this thing called slavery and adjustments were made. It literally destroyed millions, but it didn't destroy the inner lives of all the people who experienced it. There are still horrible things that go on because of the myth of race, but we don't have to succumb totally. If I had only a negative side of things to present, I think I would have much less of a drive to do it. Because what would be the point?”

People Thinking Book Negative Slavery Myth Horrible African American

Author:John Edgar Wideman

“What we forget is that African Americans made the largest contribution to America, economically, before the Civil War of any sector of society. I read that the railroads were worth about $2 billion, but slavery was a $3 billion asset.”

Made War America Forget Slavery Billions African American Civil War Contribution Assets Railroads

Author:Andrew Young

“If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs.”

Ifs Way Courage Rocks Slavery African American Tenacity Lashes

Author:Mary McLeod Bethune

“The fact that an African American sits in the White House at the helm of government in the United States of America on this 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation represents both phenomenal political symbolism and a victory of faith in democracy that should not be lost on any American.”

Source: Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry

“The acceptance of the facts of African-American history and the African-American historian as a legitimate part of the academic community did not come easily. Slavery ended and left its false images of black people intact.”

People Facts Left Black Community Acceptance Slavery African American Historian Black People Academic American History African American History

Author:John Henrik Clarke

“And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?”

“I don’t believe it is possible to transcend race in this country. Race is a factor in this society. The legacy of Jim Crow and slavery has not gone away. It is not an accident that African-Americans experience high crime rates, are poor, and have less wealth. It is a direct result of our racial history.”

Believe Country Wealth Poor Results Race Gone Crime Direct Slavery Rate Don't Believe Accidents Factors African American Legacy Crow This Society Jim Crow Gone Away Crime Rates

Author:Barack Obama

“Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks.”

White Independence Slavery Slave Enjoyed African American Comedian Holiday 4th Of July Independence Day Fireworks Funny Holiday

Author:Chris Rock

“In the Shadow of Slavery covers two and a half centuries of black life in New York City, and skillfully interweaves the categories of race and class as they affected the formation of African American identity. Leslie Harris has made a major contribution to our understanding of the black experience.”

“This was the first Memorial Day [Monday, May 1st, 1865]. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is Black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.”

“It appears that the present-day form of African American English is not the inheritance of the period of slavery, but the creation of the second half of the 20th century.”

Form Half Century Creation Periods Slavery African American 20th Century Inheritance Present Day American English

Author:William Labov

“Since the nation's founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die, but then are reborn in new form, tailored to the needs and constraints of the time.”

Needs Has Beens Form Dies Nations Institutions Slavery African American Controlled Founding Constraints Crow Reborn Jim Crow Tailored

Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“Everyday, day & night, we hear the lies that September 11th is the worst tragedy, worst accident, and worst crime to ever been committed on American soil. We bear witness that the worst crime, the worst tragedy, that has ever taken place on American soil is not September 11th. It's not the twin towers. It's the holocaust that black folks been dealing with for 400 years.”

“I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed.”

Slavery Slave African American Ashamed Grandmother One Time Grandparent Parents And Grandparents Grandparents Day Grandchildren And Grandparents Grandparents From Grandchildren Grandmother And Grandchildren Funny Grandmother Best Grandparents

Book:Invisible Man

Source: Invisible Man

“I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it.”

Ifs Stills Motivational Guy Ability Wonder Racism Slavery African American Inferiors Philanthropy Other Guys Doubted

Author:Hank Aaron

“The challenges African-Americans are facing today are rooted in the system of slavery.”

Today Challenges Slavery African American Rooted

Author:Charles Rangel

“It's a shameful, wicked, abominable law, and I'll break it, for one, the first time I get a chance; and I hope I shall have a chance, I do! Things have got to a pretty pass, if a woman can't give a warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives, poor things!" ... "Now, John, I don't know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow.”

Religion Humanity Politics Freedom Compassion Empathy Racism Slavery Equality African American

Author:Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Slavery Quotes