Best African-American History Quotes

"There's no American history without African-American history."

"For African Americans, identifying spiritually with the Israelites gave them a sustained hope that the God who delivered Israel would surely deliver them."

"In their slave songs, they made statements such as 'My Lord delivered Daniel, oh, why not deliver me too?'"

"Identifying with the romanticized plight of the Hebrew Israelites granted African Americans access to sympathy and a respect for their humanity."

"Every American knows that voter suppression looks like the nearly 3,500 African-American men who were murdered, beaten in front of their families, and hanged from trees between 1865 and 1933."

"Gordon Parks...there is a part of his canon of work that covered the African-American experience with segregation. These are powerful images."

"First African-American sextuplets to ever survive."

"The material wealth and cultural suffering stripped from black people in the United States is incomparable to virtually any other American project."

"If you're an African American, if you're black, it does start with 1619, and it is a grim history."

"African American history is not taught adequately. What we learned essentially is a whitewashed history."

"There are more African American adults under correctional control in prison or jail, on probation or parole, than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began."

"I would take this passion I had from the time I was nine years old in genealogy and I would get eight prominent African-Americans and I would trace their family tree back into the abyss of slavery."

"Dorothy Dandridge was reaching heights no other african-american actress had reached before."

"It was African slaves' central position as producers and processors of food that allowed them to leave their own special mark." - Historian Donna Gabaccia

"Religion was the vehicle by which they individually and collectively expressed their voice."

"African Americans played an important role in the drafting of the Constitution by providing the physical labor that built Independence Hall and contributing their knowledge and ideas to the drafting of the Constitution."

"The ongoing struggle for African-American rights and representation in America is a complex and multi-faceted issue that has been ongoing since the earliest days of the nation's history."

"The story of the Saiyans is representative of the story of black men in America."

"I would love for every high school student to leave high school knowing that the African-American experience was complex, it was diverse, it included freedom, it included slavery, it completely included the fight for justice and for rights."

"African American progress in this country has never come through sheer moral appeal."

"Howard educated over a hundred and fifty thousand formerly enslaved black people and their descendants."

"Contrary to popular belief, African-American history did not start with slavery in the New World. An overwhelming body of new evidence is emerging..."

"Black people have played one of the most vital roles as the perfectors of this democracy."

"That was Harriet Tubman leading them out of the Underground Railroad."

"Chadwick Boseman was an actor whose portrayals of significant African-American figures left a profound impact."

"Imagine how impactful this African-American history AP course will be."

"Black history is American history. Black history is world history."

"Blacks are significant equity holders in America's prosperity."

"We are not immigrants... we are foundation of black Americans."

"We don't have generations to look to... my generation is the first generation of African Americans with full access to opportunity."

"Hip-hop is a foundational Black American culture."

"Give props to your lineage, don't sit over here taking shots at foundational black Americans."

"This country was built on the backbones of black America."

"Reparations are exclusively for foundational Black Americans who were enslaved here in America."

"African-American studies should be an actual credit... it's an actual history class."

"Black people have a unique story in America."

"Respecting our lineage means acknowledging our unique culture as foundational black Americans."

"There's a long history of black cooperation."

"In response, Victor H. Green, a postal worker from Harlem compiled the 'Negro Motorist Green Book.'"

"Reparations is cutting big fat juicy checks for foundational black Americans who built the country."

"Without foundational black Americans, there would not be an America."

"I think the greatest tragedy is within the next ten years you talk to the average black adults they will be able to tell you way more about Wakanda than they'll be able to tell you about the Black Panther Party."

"Obama, the first African-American president."

"Freedom has never been free, especially for the descendants of enslaved Africans who toiled in bondage for centuries."

"It's about paying tribute to those who pave the way for future Generations there's no American history without africanamerican history."

"Here you have a man who made some accomplishments that no other African-American had ever made."

"Why name the Alliance in Fritz's honor? I had happen to read a little bit about Fritz Pollard, right, and realized he was a sensational African-American player in the 1920s. So I'm like, well, why not reclaim the history?"

"These are the people we pay homage to, those type of foundational Black Americans who are phenomenal, yeah surviving that."

"1619 is as important as 1776. Yes, our decision to buy that first group of 20 to 30 Africans would influence almost everything that would follow after."

"When we as a people have pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps, no other people in the world have accomplished what the American black has."

"The nation of Liberia was primarily made up of former African American slaves and their free black descendants who returned to the African continent rather than live in the extreme racism common in the United States at the time."

"Juneteenth was the last all black celebration we had to ourselves as American Africans."

"Our woman has caught the most. I wanted a black woman to have caught most of the things that have happened in America."

"In an age when most African-Americans were still slaves, Prince Hall started the first black lodge."

"Josiah T. Walls rose from the tethered pages of United States history to become the first African-American politician in the state of Florida."

"Josiah Thomas Walls rose from the tethered pages of United States history to become the first African-American politician in the state of Florida."

"Slavery and personal adversity did not prevent him from becoming a congressional cornerstone."

"Slaves built this country not only filled hands but Carpenters Masons blacksmiths musicians inventors."

"Black folk were the people laying down the tracks."

"Slavery, free labor, and the picking of cotton – we built this country, we were the wealth of this country."

"We were the immigrants against our will. We were the only people who actually were invited here."

"16-19, 20 odd Africans arrived for Comfort Virginia. Trust me, we're resilient. We're not going anywhere."

"The history of black people in this country: there was a war to keep us enslaved not that long ago."

"Juneteenth is not a diverse holiday. It's about African-American independence."

"...widely recognized as one of the first African American owned inns in the country."

"...you could be there free from Jim Crow and free from discrimination at a black-owned location."

"...the growing ranks of the black middle class were drawn to a black-owned destination."

"...we hosted many well-known African-Americans... they were religious leaders, politicians, professionals, entrepreneurs, and entertainers."

"...in 1898 Share Cottage was dedicated as the very first landmark on the African-American Heritage Trail of Martha's Vineyard."

"The African American history of the Keys and Key West is a story that is not out there, and it needs to be out there."

"The pursuit of African-American genealogy is challenging but rewarding."

"...I think modern Black America is the most important Legacy of the Civil War."

"In Philadelphia they demanded African American history be taught in public schools in 1967."

"The Tuskegee airmen become the first African-Americans to get recognition for their outstanding skills, gallantry, devotion and courage in the face of war."

"The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act changed the lives of African Americans more than anything since the Civil War."

"Memphis was an important logistical base; it was the headquarters base, and then it became the base for African American freedom because of the huge contraband camps that opened up there for escaped slaves coming to the Union lines for protection."

"The Green Book was indispensable to give you some way of finding a place where you could get some rest, get something to eat without being violated."

"Reeves became one of the first black deputy marshals commissioned west of the Mississippi River."

"The great depression and the new deal represented a watershed moment for African Americans throughout this country and reshaped the 20th century's trajectory of black life in the United States."

"I'm teaching classes not just on Kemetic history... I teach an African-American history class."

"The program helped benefit African Americans mainly because it pumped billions of dollars into the economic sector in which 5 million African Americans worked for their livelihood."

"Recently freed African-Americans standing with a world of possibilities, maybe not as many possibilities as they'd like, but now African Americans who can see a different future with the ruins of the Confederate capital behind them."

"When you think of perseverance, you think of foundational black Americans."

"We were in chains, we were constantly beaten because we were always fighting."

"Our Freedman Bank, billions of dollars were stolen from us, our lands being stolen, our prosperous towns being burned down, us being raped."

"Historically black colleges and universities, also known as HBCUs, are schools that were originally established to serve the African-American community."

"Let the black man get upon his person the brass letters U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder, and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States of America."

"1920 marked a new beginning, a renaissance for African Americans, a newfound sense of racial and cultural pride began to galvanize."

"Our mission is to open minds and change lives through the celebration and exploration of African American history and culture."

"We're left out of history, so we wanted to make sure that not just African-American history, but we're a part of American history and that history must be told."

"If he had just written nothing else, if he had died in 1904, he would have still been an important figure in African-American life."

"...the period of the American Revolution represents for African Americans the first concerted Freedom struggle that permeates the entire Colonial population of African Americans."

"Margaret Burroughs was the founder of the DuSable Museum of African-American art in history."

"If the African American human family was brought from Africa to America in the worst conditions ever, imagine what would happen if you unified and you had a voice and a power."

"African Americans... would make a way when there was no way."

"The migration of nearly 400,000 African-Americans to California, Washington, and Oregon in the 1940s also represented a profound change."

"Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor... it was one of my favorite reads of the year."

"He was one of the estimated around 10 percent of enslaved Africans who came to the United States who were Muslim."

"...African-Americans don't have that; they're the minority...they have been in a 'Back Against The Wall' kind of stance for a very long time."

"I felt like African American history again is often presented like eating vegetables, and I wanted something closer to like Lord of the Rings."

"Black Planet was launched in 2001 with the broader mission of strengthening the African-American community."

"There was a nobility to the lives of blacks in America which I didn't always see."

"The West African Islamic tradition is the origin of the American Muslim Community."

"The visible improvement in the living standards of blacks was noted in Jacob Reese's 1890 classic 'How the Other Half Lives'."

"We need to broaden our scope of the African-American population in the west and their origins."

"We call ourselves a poor people; we've been in America for 450 years, but right now, if black people win, we pull our resources, we got up more money going through our hands than maybe the ninth richest nation in the world."

"It is very important to note that black Americans have always fought for this country."

"For the first time, African-Americans overwhelmingly supported the Democratic party rather than the party of Lincoln."

"As black people started using their skill sets, they started to build the Black Wall Street."

"African-American culture history and studies is a part of the American history."

"It's a holiday that celebrates African Americans' freedom from slavery."

"A former world champion with a record 25 title defenses and one of the great African-American sporting heroes."

"Among this man's marvelous contributions were to give eloquent voice to the aspirations of black America."

"The double V campaign was a powerful and symbolic movement that reflected the determination of African-Americans to not only contribute to the Allied victory in World War II but also to secure their own victory over racial injustice and discrimination in the United States."

"Between 1865 and 1920 African Americans founded more than 50 Black settlements in Oklahoma. That's more than any other state!"

"The only race in America that doesn't have a rich deep ethnic background that we can trace and fully understand were the African-American kids who were born here like myself."

"Newly freed African Americans began to build lives for themselves."

"...this was the start of all of us being free as African-American individuals."

"When whites were at their worst, blacks were at their best."

"It's worth it. If you're ever in the DC area, please, the African-American museum is worth it."

"There was authentic freedom and there was authentic citizenship for millions and millions of African Americans."

"Education was so important to Afro-American families because it meant you could move ahead."

"Every February, the United States celebrates and honors the contributions of African Americans to this country."

"Nearly 400,000 African Americans served in the US Armed Forces."

"About two million African Americans leave the South in what's known as the Great Migration."

"We're the closest people to our ancestors out of all African-Americans because we're like the coastal region from the bottom part of Virginia all the way down to past Florida."

"Racism was increasingly used to justify slavery in the harsh treatment of African Americans."

"Harlem Renaissance is dated as 1918 to 1937, which means revival, and this kind of renaissance is happening especially among the African-American people."

"What happened in Black Wall Street or what happened at Rosewood, where African Americans seem to have their own economics."

"The AME Church was the first independent Protestant denomination founded by African Americans."