Black activist

Explore 81 quotes by Black activists

I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.

Malcolm X

The Ballot or the Bullet

More information about this quote

Topic

American Dream

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.

People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true... No. The only tired I was was tired of giving in.

Rosa Parks

More information about this quote

Topic

Civil rights Standing up for what's right Fighting for justice Racial equality Equality American politics

Author

Rosa Parks

Source

My Story

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parks, Rosa. Rosa Parks: My Story. Dial Books, 1992, ch. 8.

Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Ethical Demands for Integration

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More information about this quote

Topic

Civil rights Law

Speaker

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source

The Ethical Demands for Integration

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. “The Ethical Demands for Integration.” 27 Dec. 1962, University of Vanderbilt Law School, Nashville, TN, USA.

If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

More information about this quote

Topic

Reason for living

Speaker

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Medium

Speech

Statement Type

Questionable assertions

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Walk to Freedom." 23 June 1963, Detroit, MI, USA.

We Negroes love our country. We fought for it. We ask only that we be treated as well as those who fought against it.

More information about this quote

Topic

Racial equality

Speaker

Frederick Douglass

Source

Speeches of Frederick Douglass

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1893 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Douglass, Frederick. Speech at the World's Columbian Exposition. World's Columbian Exposition. 25 Aug. 1893, Chicago, IL, USA.

Current Citation

Douglass, Frederick. Quoted in From Battlefields Rising: How The Civil War Transformed American Literature, written by Randall Fuller. Oxford University Press, 2014.

The relation subsisting between the white and colored people of this country, is of all other questions, the great, paramount, imperative and all commanding question for this age and nation to solve.

More information about this quote

Topic

Race relations

Speaker

Frederick Douglass

Source

The Present and Future of the Colored Race in America

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1863 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Douglass, Frederick. "The Present and Future of the Colored Race in America." 15 May 1863, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York City, NY, USA.

If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.

Florynce Kennedy

More information about this quote

Topic

Abortion Oppression of women Women's rights Men and women

Speaker

Florynce Kennedy

Source

Ms. Magazine

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kennedy, Florynce. "The Verbal Karate of Florynce R. Kennedy, Esq." Ms. Magazine, Mar. 1973.

We are not fighting for integration, nor are we fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as human beings. We are fighting for...human rights.

Malcolm X

More information about this quote

Topic

Civil rights

Speaker

Malcolm X

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Malcolm X. "The Black Revolution." Militant Labor Forum. 8 Apr. 1964, New York City, NY, USA.

Current Citation

Malcolm X. "The Black Revolution." Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements, edited by George Breitman. Grove Press, 1994.

We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us.

John Lewis

More information about this quote

Topic

Fate Political progress Progress Politics

Author

John Lewis

Medium

Tweet

Language

English

Time

2006 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lewis, John [@repjohnlewis]. "We may not have chose the time, but the time has chosen us." Twitter, 11 July 2016, 4:21 p.m., twitter.com/repjohnlewis/status/752505298326319104

Let frustration fuel inspiration.

Sonia Boyce

More information about this quote

Topic

Artistic development Inspiration Activism

Speaker

Sonia Boyce

Source

Times Higher Education

Medium

Interview

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

2015 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Boyce, Sonia. Interviewed by John Elmes. Times Higher Education, 17 Dec. 2015.

I say violence is necessary. Violence is a part of America's culture. It is as American as cherry pie.

H. Rap Brown

More information about this quote

Topic

Violence in America America

Speaker

H. Rap Brown

Medium

News conference

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Brown, H. Rap. News conference. 27 July 1967, Washington, DC, USA.

The discovery of personal whiteness among the world's peoples is a very modern thing-a nineteenth and twentieth century matter, indeed. The ancient world would have laughed at such a distinction. THe Middle Age regarded skin color with mild curiousity; and even up into the eighteenth century we were hammering our national manikins into one, great, Universal Man, with fine frenzy which ignored color and race even more than birth. Today we have changed all that, and the world in a sudden, emotional conversion has discovered that it is white and by that token, wonderful!

W.E.B. Du Bois

More information about this quote

Topic

Whiteness Race

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.

The adoption of the concept of Black Power is one of the most legitimate and healthy developments in American politics and race relations in our time.... It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to begin to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations and to support those organizations. It is a call to reject the racist institutions and values of this society.

Stokely Carmichael

Black Power: The Politics of Liberation

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More information about this quote

Topic

Black Power Race relations American politics

Author

Stokely Carmichael

Source

Black Power: The Politics of Liberation

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Carmichael, Stokely and Charles Vernon Hamilton. Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. Random House, 1967.

I suggested that we use the panther as our symbol and call our political vehicle the Black Panther Party. The panther is a fierce animal, but he will not attack until he is backed into a corner; then he will strike out.

Huey P. Newton

More information about this quote

Topic

Black Power

Author

Huey P. Newton

Source

Revolutionary Suicide

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Newton, Huey. Revolutionary Suicide. Random House, 1973, ch. 16.

Black is beautiful when it is a slum kid studying to enter college, when it is a man learning new skills for a new job, or a slum mother battling to give her kids a chance for a better life. But white is beautiful, too, when it helps change society to make our system work for black people also. White is ugly when it oppresses blacks-and so is black ugly when black people exploit other blacks. No race has a monopoly on vice or virtue, and the worth of an individual is not related to the color of his skin.

Whitney Young

More information about this quote

Topic

Black is beautiful Race relations

Author

Whitney Young

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Young, Whitney Moore, Jr. Beyond Racism: Building an Open Society. McGraw-Hill, 1969, ch. 4.

The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press.

Ida B. Wells

More information about this quote

Topic

Knowledge is power Freedom of the press

Author

Ida B. Wells

Source

Southern Horrors

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1892 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Wells, Ida B. "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases." 5 Oct. 1892, New York City, NY, USA.

Current Citation

Wells, Ida B. "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases." Great Speeches by American Women. Dover Publications, 2012.

You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

Malcolm X

More information about this quote

Topic

Peace Freedom

Speaker

Malcolm X

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Malcolm X. "Prospects for Freedom in 1965." Militant Labor Forum. 7 Jan. 1965, Palm Gardens, New York City, NY, USA.

Current Citation

Malcolm X. "Prospects for Freedom in 1965." Malcolm X Speaks, edited by George Breitman. Grove Press, 1994.

Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don't yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it's actually going to be possible.

Angela Davis

More information about this quote

Topic

Political progress Perseverance Activism Politics

Author

Angela Davis

Source

Ferguson Reminds Us of the Importance of a Global Context

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

2014 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Davis, Angela. "Ferguson Reminds Us of the Importance of a Global Context." Interviewed by Frank Barat. Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Haymarket Books, 2016.

We have to begin to have a conversation that incorporates a vision of love with a vision of outrage.

Ruby Sales

More information about this quote

Topic

Anger in politics Anger Politics

Speaker

Ruby Sales

Source

On Being

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

2016 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sales, Ruby. "Where Does It Hurt?" Interviewed by Krista Tippett. On Being. WNYC, 15 Sept 2016.

The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep.

Audre Lorde

More information about this quote

Topic

Women

Author

Audre Lorde

Source

Poetry Is Not a Luxury

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lorde, Audre. "Poetry Is Not a Luxury." Chrysalis, 1977.