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Famous African American Quotations |
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Benjamin Banneker, Eubie Blake, Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet,
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Josiah Henson, Matthew Henson, Billie Holiday,
Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman
Benjamin Banneker
I am of the African race, and in the color which is natural to them of the deepest dye, and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler. Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1791
The color of the skin is in no way connected with the strength of the mind or intellectual powers. Preface to Banneker's Almanac, 1796
Evil communication corrupts good manners. I hope to live to hear that good communication corrupts bad manners. Banneker's Almanac, 1800
Eubie Blake
The world goes on no matter what you do. Eubie, 1979
My mother could smell whiskey on your breath if she was in the market and you were home in bed. Eubie, 1979
I don't have any bad habits. They might be bad for other people, but they're all right for me. Eubie, 1979
Frederick Douglass
You are not judged on the height you have risen but from the depth which you have climbed. The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass,1881
I do not ever recall seeing my mother by the light of day. She would lie down with me and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
I have no patriotism. I have no country. What country have I? The institutions of this country do not recognize me as a man. I am not thought of, spoken of, in any direction, out of the anti-slavery ranks, as a man. I am not thought of, spoken of, except as a piece of property belonging to some Christian slaveholder, and all the religious and political institutions of this country alike pronounce me a slave and a chattel. "The Right to Criticize American Institutions," May 11, 1887
Give a hungry man a stone and tell him that beautiful houses are made of it; give ice to freezing man and tell him of its good properties in hot weather;
throw a drowning man a dollar, as a mark of your good will, but do not mock the bondsman in his misery by giving him a Bible he when cannot read it. "Bibles For Slaves," 1847
Neither we, nor any other people, will ever be respected till we respect ourselves and we will never respect ourselves till we have the means to live respectfully. North American Review,1881
To make a contented slave you must make a thoughtless one. My and My Freedom
We are one, our cause is one, and we must help each other; if we are to succeed. North Star, December 3, 1847
Henry Highland Garnet
Any man that says I am [for colonization or going back to Africa] behind my back is an assassin and a coward; any man that says it to my face is a liar, and I stamp the infamous charge upon his forehead. "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America," August, 1843
They endeavor to make you as much like brutes as possible. When they have blinded the eyes of your mind- when they have embittered the sweet waters of life- when they have shot out the light which shines from the word of God, then and not till then, has American slavery done its perfect work. "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America," August, 1843
Neither gods nor angels, or just men, command you to suffer for a single moment. Therefore it is your imperative duty to use every means, moral, intellectual, and physical, that promise success. "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America," August, 1843
Think of the undying glory around the ancient name of Africa, and forget not that you are native American citizens, and as such, you are justly entitled to all the rights. "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America," August, 1843
In every man's mind the good seeds of liberty are planted, and he who brings his fellow down so low, as to make him contented with a condition of slavery, commits the highest crime against God and man. "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America," August, 1843
Brethren, arise, arise! Strike for your lives and liberties. Now is the day and the hour. Let every slave throughout the land do this, and the days of slavery are numbered. You cannot be more oppressed than you have been- you cannot suffer greater cruelties than you have already. Rather die freemen than live to be slaves. Remember that you are four million! In the name of God, we ask, are you men? Where is the blood of your fathers? Has it all run out of your veins? Awake, awake! Let your motto be resistance, resistance, resistance! "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America," August, 1843
Two hundred and twenty-seven years ago the first of our injured race were brought to the shores of America. They came not with glad spirits to select their homes in the New World. They came not with their own consent, to find unmolested enjoyment of the blessings of this fruitful soil .... They came with broken hearts, from their beloved native land, and were doomed to unrequited toil and deep degradation. "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America," August, 1843
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
The respect that is only bought by gold is not worth much. It is no honor to shake hands politically with men who whip women and steal babies. Anglo-African Man, June, 1859
I belong to this race, and when it is down I belong to a down race; when it is up, I belong to a risen race. The Underground Railroad, 1872
And what is wrong in a woman's life, in a man's cannot be right. "A Double Standard," 1854
Mothers are the levers which move in education. The men talk about it...but the women work most for it. The Coloured Women of America
God wields national judgment on national sins. Letter to John Brown, November 25, 1859
A government which has power to tax a man in peace, draft him in war, should have power to defend his life in the hour of peril. A government which can protect and defend its citizens from wrong and outrage and does not is vicious. A government which could not do it is weak; and where human life is insecure through either weakness or viciousness in the administration of law, there must be a lack of justice and where this is wanting, nothing can make up the deficiency. Transactions of the National Council of the Women of the U.S., February 22, 1881
Josiah Henson
My brothers and sisters were bid off first, and one by one, while my mother, paralyzed with grief, held me by the hand. Her turn came and she was bought by Isaac Riley of Montgomery County. The I was offered...My mother, half distracted with the thought of parting forever from all her children, pushed
through the crowd while the bidding for me was going on, to the spot where Riley was standing. She fell at his feet, and clung to his knees, entreating him in tones that a mother could only command. To buy her baby as well as herself, and spare to her one, at least, of her little ones...This men disengag[ed] himself from her with... Violent blows and kicks... I must have been then between five and six years old. Father Henson's Story of His Own Life
We lodged in huts and on the bare ground. Wooden floors were an unknown luxury. In a single room were huddled, like cattle, ten or a dozen persons, men, women, and children. All ideas of refinement and decency were, of course, out of the question. There were neither bedsteads, nor furniture of any description. Our beds were collections of straw and old rags, thrown down in the corners and boxed with boards, a single blanket the only covering. Father Henson's Story of His Own Life
Matthew Henson
As I stood there on the top of the world and I thought of the hundreds of men who had lost their lives in the effort to reach it [North Pole], I felt profoundly grateful that I had the honor of representing my race. Matt Henson: Arctic Explorer Featured in Film," 1983
Billie Holiday
A person without friends might as well be dead. Lady Sings the Blues The one I really liked best, though, was my great-grandmother , my grandfather's mother... We used to talk about life. And she used to tell me
how it felt to be a slave, to be owned body and soul by a white man who was the father of her children. She couldn't read and write, but she knew the Bible from beginning to end, and she was always ready to tell me a story from the Scriptures. Lady Sings the Blues
People don't understand the fight it takes to record what you want to record the way you want to record it. Lady Sings the Blues
You can't get too high for someone to bring you down. Lady Sings the Blues
I had the white gowns and the white shoes. And every night they'd bring me the white gardenias and the white junk. When I was on, I was on and nobody gave me trouble. No cops, no treasury agents, nobody. I got into trouble when I tried to get off. Lady Sings the Blues
All dope can do is kill you the long hard way. And it can kill the people you love right along with you. Lady Sings the Blues
Sometimes it's worse to win the fight than to lose. Lady Sings the Blues
Thurgood Marshall
Why, of all the multitudinous groups in this country, [do] you have to single out the Negroes and give them this separate treatment? It can't be because of slavery in the past, because there are very few groups in this
country that haven't had slavery some place back in the history of their group. It can't be color, because there are Negroes as white as drifted snow, with blue eyes, and they are just as segregated as the colored man. The only thing it can be is an inherent determination that the people who were formerly in slavery, regardless of anything else, shall be kept as near that state as possible. Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 1953
The only way to get equality is for get two people to get the same thing at the same time at the same place. The Donald Murray Case, 1934
When people ask why a separate Black law organization is needed at this late date, the answer is simple. It's not that late. Jet, August 29, 1988
Harriet Tubman
There was one or two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted. Harriet, Moses of Her People, Ellen Bradford, 1869 |
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