If I had to choose between baseball’s Hall of Fame and first class citizenship for all of my people. I would say first-class citizenship..

I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being..

A life isn't significant except for its impact on others' lives..

There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free..

I don’t think it matters what I believe, only what I do..

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 yo….

I had to fight hard against loneliness, abuse, and the knowledge that any mistakes I made would be magnified because I was the only black man out the….

I'm not goin' anywhere, I'm right here!.

Negroes aren't seeking anything which is not good for the nation as well as ourselves. In order for America to be 100 percent strong -- economically,….

I don't like needing anyone for anything..

I know that I am a black man in a white world. . . I know that I never had it made..

At the beginning of the World Series of 1947, I experienced a completely new emotion when the National Anthem was played. This time, I thought, it is….

The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time..

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives..

Baseball, like some other sports, poses as a sacred institution dedicated to the public good, but it is actually a big, selfish business with a ruthl….

Are you looking for a Negro who won't fight back?.

Life is not a spectator sport..

Relationships may change throughout the gift of time, memories stay the same forever in my mind..

I don't think that I or any other Negro, as an American citizen, should have to ask for anything that is rightfully his. We are demanding that we jus….

When he (Richard Nixon) took the oath of office, he pledged to be the president for 100% of the people, and I challenge the president to prove that h….

I do not believe that every person, in every walk of life, can succeed in spite of any handicap. That would be perfection. But I do believe that what….