Black History Month: Memory, Motion, and the Quiet Revolution of Being Seen
In this article
1. “I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams.” — Anonymous
2. “The function of freedom is to free someone else.” — Toni Morrison
3. “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” — Desmond Tutu
4. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” — Frederick Douglass
5. “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
6. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” — Maya Angelou
7. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker
8. “Where there is no vision, there is no hope.” — George Washington Carver
9. “The time is always right to do what is right.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
10. “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” — Malcolm X
11. “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” — Booker T. Washington
12. “I am not my hair. I am not this skin. I am the soul that lives within.” — India.Arie
13. “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” — Frederick Douglass
14. “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” — Angela Davis
15. “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” — Langston Hughes
16. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
17. “The soul that is within me no man can degrade.” — Frederick Douglass
18. “I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.” — Rosa Parks
19. “We must never forget that Black history is American history.” — Yvette Clarke
20. “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” — W.E.B. Du Bois
21. “Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” — Mae Jemison
22. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
23. “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
24. “Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.” — Maya Angelou
25. “Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power.” — Barbara Jordan
26. “We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.” — Maya Angelou
27. “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
28. “If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.” — James Baldwin
29. “If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.” — Toni Morrison
30. “I don’t want a Black history month. Black history is American history.” — Morgan Freeman
31. “Define yourself for yourself.” — Audre Lorde
32. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela
33. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” — Shirley Chisholm
34. “Service is the rent we pay for living.” — Marian Wright Edelman
35. “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” — Audre Lorde
36. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
37. “Dream like Martin. Lead like Harriet. Fight like Malcolm. Write like Maya.” — Anonymous
38. “If we stand tall it is because we stand on the shoulders of many ancestors.” — African Proverb
39. “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” — Malcolm X
40. “Don’t agonize. Organize.” — Florynce Kennedy
41. “Character, not circumstances, makes the man.” — Booker T. Washington
42. “The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.” — Maya Angelou
43. “Racism should never have happened and so you don’t get a cookie for reducing it.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
44. “I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it!” — Madam C.J. Walker
45. “Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own and none can keep it from them.” — Kwame Nkrumah
46. “When they go low, we go high.” — Michelle Obama
47. “You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree.” — Malcolm X
48. “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” — Frederick Douglass
49. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” — Muhammad Ali
50. “I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.” — Audre Lorde
51. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Nelson Mandela
52. “The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.” — Marcus Garvey
53. “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” — Malcolm X
54. “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive.” — Maya Angelou
55. “Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.” — Moshe Dayan
56. “Black history isn’t a separate history. This is all our history.” — Kanye West
57. “We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.” — June Jordan
58. “The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world’s definitions.” — James Baldwin
59. “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” — Lena Horne
60. “Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down. Trust your instincts — good relationships feel good.” — Oprah Winfrey
61. “In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.” — Thurgood Marshall
62. “Hate is too great a burden to bear.” — Coretta Scott King
63. “If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” — Maya Angelou
64. “You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served.” — Nina Simone
65. “You can’t be neutral on a moving train.” — Howard Zinn
66. “It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.” — Ralph Ellison
67. “Without community, there is no liberation.” — Audre Lorde
68. “I don’t measure America by its achievement but by its potential.” — Shirley Chisholm
69. “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” — Nelson Mandela
70. “The Black woman is the most disrespected person in America.” — Malcolm X
71. “We must trust our own thinking. Trust where we’re going.” — Audre Lorde
72. “To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step.” — Rosa Parks
73. “Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.” — Oprah Winfrey
74. “Your crown has been bought and paid for. Put it on your head and wear it.” — Maya Angelou
75. “When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” — Ralph Ellison
76. “Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.” — Malcolm X
77. “If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.” — Marcus Garvey
78. “Deal with yourself as an individual worthy of respect and make everyone else deal with you the same way.” — Nikki Giovanni
79. “Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring.” — James Weldon Johnson
80. “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
81. “Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” — Madam C.J. Walker
82. “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” — Booker T. Washington
83. “Nothing will work unless you do.” — Maya Angelou
84. “Your silence will not protect you.” — Audre Lorde
85. “To be African is to be spiritual.” — John Henrik Clarke
86. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” — Maya Angelou
87. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” — Barack Obama
88. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
89. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” — Maya Angelou
90. “He who learns, teaches.” — Ethiopian Proverb
91. “I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else’s whim or to someone else’s ignorance.” — Bell Hooks
92. “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” — Cornel West
93. “When we show up, we make history.” — Stacey Abrams
94. “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” — Zora Neale Hurston
95. “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.” — Seneca, quoted by Maya Angelou
96. “Revolution is not a one-time event.” — Audre Lorde
97. “The beauty of standing up for your rights is others see you standing and stand up as well.” — Cassandra Duffy
98. “Be Black, shine, and be seen.” — Gil Scott-Heron
99. “Our crowns have already been bought and paid for — all we have to do is wear them.” — James Baldwin
100. “Black history is not just about the past; it’s the blueprint for the future.” — Anonymous
101. “We are the sum of survival, brilliance, and rhythm — and we will continue.” — Olusegun Orija
