Quotes on African American History

For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.

Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.

Black people have always been America's wilderness in search of a promised land.

Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations.

I do not weep at the world I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.

I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all.

Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

Knowing what must be done does away with fear.

I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person.

Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.

Hate is too great a burden to bear.

I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in 'We, the people.'

The potential for greatness lives within us all.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.

The acceptance of the facts of African-American history and the African-American historian as a legitimate part of the academic community did not come easily. Slavery ended and left its false images of black people intact.

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.