Black activist

Explore 81 quotes by Black activists

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

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Topic

Legality and morality

Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Medium

Open letter Letter

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." 16 Apr. 1963.

Current Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail (1963)." A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches, edited by James M. Washington. HarperOne, 2003.

The Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

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Topic

Civil rights Political compromise American politics

Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Medium

Open letter Letter

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." 16 Apr. 1963.

Current Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail (1963)." A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches, edited by James M. Washington. HarperOne, 2003.

It'll be ballots, or it'll be bullets. It'll be liberty, or it will be death.

Malcolm X

The Ballot or the Bullet

More information about this quote

Topic

Voting rights Fighting for freedom

Speaker

Malcolm X

Source

The Ballot or the Bullet

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Malcolm X. "The Ballot or the Bullet." 3 Apr. 1964, Cory Methodist Church, Cleveland, OH, USA.

Current Citation

Malcolm X. "The Ballot or the Bullet." Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements, edited by George Breitman. Grove Press, 1994.

The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.

Frederick Douglass

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Topic

Threats to the nation National character

Speaker

Frederick Douglass

Source

We are Confronted by a New Administration

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1885 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Douglass, Frederick. "We are Confronted by a New Administration." 23rd Anniversary of the Emancipation of Slaves. 16 Apr. 1885, Lincoln Memorial Congregational Church, Washington, DC, USA.

Despite of it all, the Negro remains like iron or granite, cool, strong, imperturbable and cheerful.

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Topic

Black Americans

Speaker

Frederick Douglass

Source

The United States Cannot Remain Half-Slave and Half-Free

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Douglass, Frederick. "The United States Cannot Remain Half-Slave and Half-Free." Twenty-first anniversary of Emancipation. 16 April 1883, Congregational Church, Washington, DC, USA.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Topic

Nonviolence Activism

Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Medium

Nobel Prize Lecture Speech

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Nobel Lecture." Les Prix Nobel en 1964. [The Nobel Peace Prize 1964.] 11 Dec. 1964, Auditorium of the University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.

W.E.B. Du Bois

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Topic

Race relations

Author

W.E.B. Du Bois

Source

To the Nations of the World

Genre

Sociology

Language

English

Time

1900 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. "To the Nations of the World." Pan-African Conference. 25 July 1900, London, England, UK. Address.

Your silence will not protect you.

Audre Lorde

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Topic

Oppression Politics

Speaker

Audre Lorde

Source

The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Lorde, Audre. "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action." Modern Language Association's Lesbian and Literature Panel. 28 Dec. 1977, Chicago, IL, USA.

Current Citation

Lorde, Audre. "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action." The Selected Works of Audre Lorde. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.

You profess to believe "that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth," and hath commanded all men, everywhere, to love one another; yet you notoriously hate (and glory in your hatred) all men whose skins are not colored like your own!

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Topic

American hypocrisy

Speaker

Frederick Douglass

Source

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Douglass, Frederick. "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Independence Day Celebration. 5 July 1852, Corinthian Hall, Rochester, NY, USA.

Current Citation

Douglass, Frederick. "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Frederick Douglass: Speeches & Writings, edited by David W. Blight. Library of America, 2022.

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.

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Topic

Consequences of oppression

Speaker

Frederick Douglass

Source

Southern Barbarism Twenty-Fourth Anniversary of Emancipation

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1886 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Douglass, Frederick. "Southern Barbarism." Twenty-Fourth Anniversary of Emancipation. 16 April 1886, Washington, DC, USA.

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others... One feels his twoness-an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivngs; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

W.E.B. Du Bois

The Souls of Black Folk

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Topic

Black experience

Author

W.E.B. Du Bois

Source

The Souls of Black Folk

Genre

Sociology

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. A. C. McClurg & Co., 1903, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk, edited by Brent Hayes Edwards. Oxford University Press, 2009, ch. 1.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Topic

Nuclear holocaust

Speaker

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Medium

Nobel Prize Lecture Speech

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. Speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. 10 Dec. 1964, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

The Negro folk-song-the rhythmic cry of the slave-stands today not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the seas. It has been neglected, it has been, and is, half despised, and above all it has been persistently mistaken and misunderstood; but notwithstanding, it still remains as the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro people.

W.E.B. Du Bois

The Souls of Black Folk

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Topic

Black music American music

Author

W.E.B. Du Bois

Source

The Souls of Black Folk

Genre

Sociology

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. A. C. McClurg & Co., 1903, ch. 14.

Current Citation

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk, edited by Brent Hayes Edwards. Oxford University Press, 2009, ch. 14.

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Topic

Technological progress Moral progress Progress

Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source

The Man Who Was a Fool

Medium

Sermon

Language

English

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "The Man Who Was a Fool." Detroit Council of Churches' Noon Lenten Services. 6 Mar. 1961, Detroit, MI, USA.

The dark world is going to submit to its present treatment just as long as it must and not one moment longer.

W.E.B. Du Bois

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Topic

Anti-colonialism Anti-imperialism

Author

W.E.B. Du Bois

Source

Darkwater

Language

English

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. "The Souls of White Folk." Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. Harcourt, Brace And Howe, 1920.

Current Citation

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. "The Souls of White Folk." Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Oxford University Press, 2014.

To see your enemy and know him is part of the complete education of man.

Marcus Garvey

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Topic

Understanding one's enemy Enemies

Author

Marcus Garvey

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Garvey, Marcus. Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. Vol. 1, The Universal Publishing House, 1923, ch. 2.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Strength to Love

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Topic

Tests of character Helping others

Author

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source

Strength to Love

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. Strength to Love. Harper & Row, 1963, ch. 3.

The return from your work must be the satisfaction which that work brings you and the world's need of that work. With this, life is heaven, or as near heaven as you can get. Without this-with work which you despise, which bores you, and which the world does not need-this life is hell.

W.E.B. Du Bois

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Topic

Work

Author

W.E.B. Du Bois

Language

English

Time

1958 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. "Advice to a Great-Grandson." His 90th birthday celebration. 1958, The Roosevelt Hotel, New York, NY, USA. Address.

Negroes will not break out of the barriers of the ghetto unless whites transcend the barriers of their own minds, for the ghetto in which the white lives imprisoned. The poetic irony of American race relations is that the rejected Negro must somehow also find the strength to free the privileged white.

Kenneth B. Clark

Dark Ghetto

More information about this quote

Topic

Race relations

Author

Kenneth B. Clark

Source

Dark Ghetto

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clark, Kenneth B. Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power. Harper and Row, 1965, ch. 9.

My alma mater was books.

Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

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Topic

Books Education

Author

Malcolm X

Source

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. Grove Press, 1965.