Activist Quotes

An organization which claims to be working for the needs of a community - as SNCC does - must work to provide that community with a position of strength from which to make its voice heard. This is the significance of black power beyond the slogan.

We had no more courage than Harriet Tubman or Marcus Garvey had in their times. We just had a more vulnerable enemy.

There has been only a civil rights movement, whose tone of voice was adapted to an audience of liberal whites.

The first need of a free people is to define their own terms.

Seems to me that the institutions that function in this country are clearly racist, and that they're built upon racism.

Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks.

A man is born free.

Now, then, in order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom.

Leaders in Africa are so corrupt that we are certain if we put dogs in uniforms and put guns on their shoulders, we'd be hard put to distinguish them.

I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people.

I also know that while I am black I am a human being, and therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people didn't know that.Every time I tried to go into a place they stopped me.

Capitalism is a stupid system, a backward system.

Black power can be clearly defined for those who do not attach the fears of white America to their questions about it.

I usually say I did the best I could with what I had. I have no major regrets.

Our grandfathers had to run, run, run. My generation's out of breath. We ain't running no more.

Integration is a man's ability to want to move in there by himself. If someone wants to live in a white neighborhood and he is black, that is his choice. It should be his rights. It is not because white people will not allow him.

We were aware of the fact that death walks hand in hand with struggle.

The masses don't shed their blood for the benefit of a few individuals.

The knowledge I have now is not the knowledge I had then.

There is a higher law than the law of government. That's the law of conscience.

The secret of life is to have no fear; it's the only way to function.

I knew that I could vote and that that wasn't a privilege; it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived.

Some of our greatest historical and artistic treasures we place in museums; others, we take for walks.

I am as confounded by dogs as I am indebted to them.

There are only three sins - causing pain, causing fear, and causing anguish. The rest is window dressing.

If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.

Cats don't like change without their consent.

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.

The art of politics is knowing what to do next.

No strike could ever be won with a Communist at its head since the employers would make victory impossible.