Black History Month Quotes

If the only time you think of me as a scientist is during Black History Month, then I must not be doing my job as a scientist.

Black History Month should be celebrated everyday. It's a month that's kind of sad to me, because I am reminded of the struggles that people before us had to go through for us to be able to live comfortably today.

I don't celebrate Valentine's Day. It gets in the way of Black History Month. Cupid didn't free any slaves.

They oughtta change Black History Month to Black Progress Month and start measuring it.

Black History Month is in the shortest month of the year, and the coldest-just in case we want to have a parade

I have a dream, and a plan, to combine the commercial possibilities of Valentine's Day with the substance and meaning of black history month. I call it: Blackentine's Day.

I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or rat in a trap. I had already determined to sell my life as dearly as possible if attacked. I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit.

Phillip Roth uses his Black women characters to make anti intellectual remarks about Black history month, begun by a man who reached intellectual heights that Roth will never attain. Roth is a petty bigot and his ignorant remarks about black culture expose him as a buffoon to scholars the world over.

I refuse to accept the view . . . that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionarys life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime.

One ever feels his twoness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

You really can change the world if you care enough.

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.

I used to want the words 'She tried' on my tombstone. Now I want 'She did it.'

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.

You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.

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.

My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you.

I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.

You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation.

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.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

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

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

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

I am the dream and the hope of the slave

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

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

In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.

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

Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.

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

Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

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.'

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.

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

What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.

Where there is no vision, there is no hope.

The potential for greatness lives within us all.

I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life.

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

Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations.

I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.

Hate is too great a burden to bear.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.

It is my hope that as we commemorate Black History Month in the future, we will continue to celebrate the many achievements and rich culture of African-Americans.

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.