Notable Quotes
Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”
— John Lewis, politician and civil rights activist
“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.”
— Barack Obama, former U.S. president
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.”
— Wilma Rudolph, Olympic track and field athlete
“Won’t it be wonderful when Black history and Native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.”
— Maya Angelou, writer and civil rights activist
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., minister and civil rights activist
“The very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.”
— Toni Morrison, novelist
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
— Alice Walker, novelist and social activist
“Racism separates, but it never liberates. Hatred generates fear, and fear once given a foothold binds, consumes, and imprisons. Nothing is gained from prejudice. No one benefits from racism.”
— Thurgood Marshall, civil rights lawyer and former Supreme Court Justice
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
— James Baldwin, writer
“You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served.”
— Nina Simone, singer and civil rights activist