There are two ways of exerting one’s strength; one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
— Booker T. Washington
Now I’ve been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.
— Harriet Tubman
If people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love. But we need to know, you can’t erase history. So, let’s learn from it and be damned sure it doesn’t happen again.
— Opal Lee
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
— Ralph Ellison
To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.
— James Baldwin
I am a product of affirmative action. I am the perfect affirmative action baby. I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in the south Bronx. My test scores were not comparable to my colleagues at Princeton and Yale. Not so far off so that I wasn't able to succeed at those institutions.
— Sonia Sotomayor
We are on the move now ... Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom.
— Martin Luther King Jr.
I don't want affirmative action - too much affirmative, not enough action.
— Paul Mooney
A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.
