Notes & Quotes
Quotes: On Reading
Quotes for African American History Month: February
Celebrated in February, African American History Month is an extension of Negro History week, which was established in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, director of what was then known as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Woodson selected the week in February because it spanned the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. He saw the event as a national celebration and viewed the week as part of the Association’s effort to demonstrate to the world how Africans and those of African descent had contributed to the advance of history. In 1976, the celebration was expanded to the entire month of February.
Below you will find memorable quotations and poetry by a wealth of talented and accomplished African Americans.
“I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core.”
Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet, from Sympathy. (1872-1906)
“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.”
Hank Aaron (Henry Louis Aaron), major league baseball star, 1992.
“As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.”
Marian Anderson, contralto, who, in 1939, sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial when she was refused an appearance at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and broke the color barrier at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1955.
“If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.”
Maya Angelou, poet and author, 1992.
“Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.”
Maya Angelou, from “Still I Rise,” 1978.
“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”
Arthur Ashe, tennis great, who had won 3 grand slam titles by 1975.
“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.”
James Baldwin, novelist, playwright, and poet,1962.
“Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.”
George Washington Carver, botanical researcher and agronomy educator (1864-1943)
“Impossibilities are merely things of which we have not learned, or which we do not wish to happen.”
Charles W. Chesnutt, author and political activist, 1901.
“I find, in being black, a thing of beauty: a joy; a strength; a secret cup of gladness.”
Ossie Davis, actor, director, playwright, and social activist (1917-2005)
“America is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophecy, but description.”
Ralph Ellison, author and scholar, 1952.
“It isn't where you came from, it’s where you're going that counts.”
Ella Fitzgerald, jazz vocalist, 1917-1996)
“We also learn that this country and the Western world have no monopoly of goodness and truth and scholarship, we begin to appreciate the ingredients that are indispensable to making a better world. In a life of learning that is, perhaps, the greatest lesson of all.”
John Hope Franklin, historian and scholar, 1988.
“I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have from reading novels. The understatements in the tenor saxophone of Lester Young, the crystal, haunting, forever searching sounds of John Coltrane, and the softness and violence of Count Basie's big band--all have fired my imagination as much as anything in literature.”
Ernest J. Gaines, author, 1991.
“I like to tell the truth as I see it. That's why literature is so important. We cannot possibly leave it to history as a discipline nor to sociology nor science nor economics to tell the story of our people. It's not a ladder we are climbing, it's literature we're producing, and there will always be someone to read it.”
Nikki Giovanni, poet, author, and activist, 1984.
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader, in his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, December 10, 1964.
“Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.”
Coretta Scott King, wife of the slain civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., and civil rights activist (1927-2006)
“In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.”
Thurgood Marshall, jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court.
“I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”
Rosa Parks, civil rights activist who became famous when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. This started the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
“Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life.”
Jackie Robinson, major league baseball player who broke the baseball color line in 1947 when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
“No nation as rich as ours should have so many people isolated on islands of poverty in such a sea of material wealth.”
Andrew Young, civil rights activist, Congressman, Mayor of Atlanta, first African American Ambassador to the UN, in A Way Out of No Way, 1994.
