110 Powerful Black History Month Quotes That Will Inspire and Move You
Updated: Apr. 25, 2024
These Black History Month quotes will move and motivate you!
Being Black in America is an honor and a privilege. Black people in this country have endured and overcome so much while simultaneously contributing to every aspect of America’s foundation, culture and society. From creating witty and unique inventions that impact the day-to-day lives of Americans to influencing sports and fashion, Black creatives have made a mark on American history that can never be erased. That’s why we celebrate Black History Month in February, when you can tap into and share the many Black History Month quotes that honor the immeasurable seeds Black people have sown in American soil.
Carter G. Woodson, a Black historian who received his PhD from Harvard University in 1912 and was known as the “father of Black history,” once stated, “We should emphasize not Negro History but the Negro in history. 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.” Inspired to celebrate Black heritage, history and accomplishments, Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which later birthed a Negro History Week that grew to become Black History Month.
When thinking about Black History Month and participating in Black History Month activities, it’s important to remember that one of the keys to not repeating the mistakes of the past is to fully acknowledge the experiences, contributions and existence of a shared legacy and foundation that has not always been inspirational. America is a great nation, and the reality that we as a modern society are striving to learn, grow and continue to build on America’s foundation together is a feat in and of itself. As Amanda Gorman, the youngest poet laureate ever to speak at a presidential inauguration, so eloquently stated, “For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption we feared at its inception.”
With the choices we make each day, we are perpetually creating history in the present moment, and that is an inspiration. So check out the powerful Black History Month quotes below, which will continue to inspire and move you.
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Inspirational Black History Month quotes
1. “One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.” —Franklin Thomas, first Black president and CEO of the Ford Foundation
2. “Unless we start to fight and defeat the enemies in our own country, poverty and racism, and make our talk of equality and opportunity ring true, we are exposed in the eyes of the world as hypocrites when we talk about making people free.” —Shirley Chisholm, first Black woman to be elected to Congress (in 1968) and to run for president (in 1972)
3. “History has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.” —Michelle Obama, first Black first lady of the United States
4. “You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people if you don’t serve the people.” —Cornel West, philosopher, political activist and social critic
5. “If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.” —James Baldwin, 20th-century poet, novelist, playwright and activist
6. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” —Barack Obama, first Black president of the United States
7. “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.” —Muhammad Ali, political activist, entertainer and philanthropist known as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time; Ali used his influence during the Civil Rights Movement to instill racial pride
8. “Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.” —Maya Angelou, world-renowned poet laureate, author, actress, playwright and civil rights activist whose career spanned half a century; Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2010
9. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” —Muhammad Ali
10. “Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion, you’re wasting your life.” —Jackie Robinson, first African American to play in Major League Baseball
11. “One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.” —Michelle Obama
Motivational Black history quotes from Black leaders
12. “If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender and rise up against all odds.” —Jesse Jackson, American political activist, politician and Baptist preacher
13. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” —Nelson Mandela, politician and South African anti-apartheid activist who was elected the first president of South Africa
14. “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” —W.E.B. DuBois, author, social activist and educator who was also the first Black man to graduate from Harvard with a PhD; DuBois co-founded the NAACP in 1909
15. “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” —Booker T. Washington, 19th-century politician, author and co-founder of Tuskegee Institute, a famous historically Black college
16. “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, first Black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, who argued the Brown v. Board of Education case and played a major role in the fight to stop racial segregation in the educational system
17. “A people without the knowledge of their past history is like a tree without roots.” —Marcus Garvey, publisher, journalist and political activist in the early 20th century who launched the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
18. “The thing about Black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.” —Henry Louis Gates, professor, historian, filmmaker and literary critic
19. “I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.” —Malcolm X, political activist and human rights activist who was an advocate for Black empowerment until his assassination in 1965
20. “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. … I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” —Martin Luther King Jr., activist, preacher and the 1964 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement until his assassination in 1968
21. “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” —Nelson Mandela
22. “You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.” —Malcolm X
23. “Have a vision of excellence, a dream of success, and work like hell.” —Dr. Samuel DuBois Cook, political scientist and the first African American faculty member at Duke University
24. “If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything … that smacks of discrimination or slander.” —Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator and philanthropist
Empowering social justice and diversity quotes
25. “It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” —James Baldwin
26. “Let woman’s claim be as broad in the concrete as the abstract. We take our stand on the solidarity of humanity, the oneness of life, and the unnaturalness and injustice of all special favoritism, whether of sex, race, country or condition. If one link of the chain is broken, the chain is broken.” —Anna Julia Cooper, PhD, author, educator and Black liberation activist known as the Mother of Black Feminism and a former slave
27. “Race is a constant factor in American life. Yet, reacting to every incident, real or imagined, is crippling, tiring and ultimately counterproductive.” —Condoleezza Rice, first Black female Secretary of State and the first woman to serve as National Security Advisor
28. “I suffered first as a child from discrimination, poverty. … So I think it was a natural follow from that that I should use my camera to speak for people who are unable to speak for themselves.” —Gordon Parks, photographer, documentarian, director and musician who used photojournalism from the 1940s to 1970s to document Black life
29. “I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it.” —Claudette Colvin, pioneer of the 1950s Civil Rights Movement
30. “When we’re talking about diversity, it’s not a box to check. It is a reality that should be deeply felt and held and valued by all of us.” —Ava DuVernay, filmmaker and culture-shifter
31. “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” —Cornel West, philosopher, political activist and social critic
32. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
Black History Month quotes from Black entertainers
33. “Loving God is like my being Black. I just am. [No one says] ‘You know what? I’m gonna be blacker today!’ It’s my culture. It’s not something I put on or take off or show more. You just communicate that in the way you live your life.” —Angela Bassett, actress
34. “What I’m really praying is that we, as a people, understand that we are interdependent upon each other. We don’t want police to leave; we want policing in our world. But I think that people aren’t comfortable with each other.” —Lynn Whitfield, actress
35. “When I was born, I was colored. I soon became a Negro. Not long after that, I was Black. Most recently, I was African American. It seems we’re on a roll here. But I am still first and foremost in search of freedom.” —Harry Belafonte, singer, songwriter, activist and actor
36. “I’m very proud to be Black, but Black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am, nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.” —Denzel Washington, actor, director and producer
37. “I also believe that you are what you have to defend, and if you’re a Black man, that’s always going to be the bar against which you are judged, whether you want to align yourself with those themes or not. You can think of yourself as a colorless person, but nobody else is gonna.” —Don Cheadle, actor and filmmaker
38. “The breakdown of the Black community, in order to maintain slavery, began with the breakdown of the Black family. Men and women were not legally allowed to get married, because you couldn’t have that kind of love. It might get in the way of the economics of slavery. Your children could be taken from you and literally sold down the river.” —Kerry Washington, actress, producer and director
39. “Take a stand for what’s right. Raise a ruckus and make a change. You may not always be popular, but you’ll be part of something larger and bigger and greater than yourself. Besides, making history is extremely cool.” —Samuel Jackson, actor and producer
40. “I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.” —Morgan Freeman, actor, director and producer
41. “I need to see my own beauty and to continue to be reminded that I am enough, that I am worthy of love without effort, that I am beautiful, that the texture of my hair and that the shape of my curves, the size of my lips, the color of my skin, and the feelings that I have are all worthy and okay.” —Tracee Ellis Ross, actress
42. “Even if it makes others uncomfortable, I will love who I am.” —Janelle Monáe, actress, model and recording artist
Moving quotes from Black musicians
43. “It is an artist’s duty to reflect the times, as far as I’m concerned; you can’t help it.” —Nina Simone, singer, musician and activist who was considered one of the most influential singers during the Civil Rights Movement
44. “I don’t stand for the Black man’s side. I don’t stand for the White man’s side. I stand for God’s side.” —Bob Marley, 20th-century singer, songwriter and musician who was an advocate of Pan-Africanism
45. “We as Black people have to tell our own stories. We have to document our history. When we allow someone else to document our history, the history becomes twisted, and we get written out. We get our noses blown off.” —Erykah Badu, musician, actress and producer
46. “I don’t do Black music. I don’t do White music. I do fight music, unified in Christ music.” —Lecrae, born-again Christian who uses his music platform to bridge the gap between millennials and the church
47. “Part of what my music represents is to stand up and be the voice of those who feel like they are not heard and want to be treated with respect regardless of race, color, orientation—android, cyborg, whatever.” —Janelle Monae, singer, rapper and actress
48. “We all require and want respect, man or woman, Black or White. It’s our basic human right.” —Aretha Franklin, singer, songwriter and pianist, considered one of the greatest musicians of all time
49. “Watch us walk, watch us move, watch us overcome, listen to our voices, the sway. The resilience. The innovation. The raw, unfiltered and untouched soul we have cannot be touched.” —Solange Knowles, singer, songwriter and actress
50. “I’m Black, and I’m proud!” —James Brown, singer, songwriter and record producer, considered the Godfather of Soul and the originator of funk music
Quotes about Black history from Black politicians
51. “You never cede control of your own ability to be successful to something called racism.” —Condoleezza Rice
52. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” —Harriet Tubman, former enslaved American abolitionist, political activist and one of the most famous figures on the Underground Railroad in the 19th century
53. “My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life.” —Robert Smalls, U.S. congressman (1895)
54. “What the people want is simple. They want an America as good as its promise.” —Barbara Jordan, U.S. congresswoman, lawyer, educator and leader during the Civil Rights Movement
55. “Have a vision. Be demanding.” —Colin Powell, first Black U.S. Secretary of State
56. “I am and always will be a catalyst for change.” —Shirley Chisholm
57. “I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.” —Booker T. Washington
58. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” —Shirley Chisholm
59. “Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.” —John Lewis, civil rights leader who led the “Bloody Sunday” march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge on March 7, 1965, served 17 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011
Uplifting Black history quotes from Black poets
60. “The greatest movement for social justice our country has ever known is the Civil Rights Movement, and it was totally rooted in a love ethic.” —Bell Hooks, author, poet, feminist and social activist
61. “We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans—because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings.” —Maya Angelou
62. “I write for young girls of color, for girls who don’t even exist yet, so that there is something there for them when they arrive. I can only change how they live, not how they think.” —Ntozake Shange, poet, academic, playwright and feminist who wrote about race and Black issues in the 1970s to early 2000s
63. “Hope is tenacious. It goes on living and working when science has dealt it what should be its death blow.” —Paul Laurence Dunbar, American poet, novelist and leading literary figure during the Harlem Renaissance
64. “Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” —James Baldwin
65. “There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.” —Rita Dove, American poet and author
66. “Once you know who you are, you don’t have to worry anymore.” —Nikki Giovanni, American poet, activist and educator
67. “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say that you enjoyed it.” —Zora Neale Hurston, author, anthropologist, folklorist and filmmaker in the early 1900s to 1960s
68. “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” —Langston Hughes, American poet and social activist
69. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” —Maya Angelou
Civil rights quotes to motivate and inspire
70. “You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea.” —Medgar Evers, civil rights activist
71. “Three hundred years of humiliation, abuse and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
72. “Sometimes history takes things into its own hands.” —Thurgood Marshall
73. “You don’t have to live near me; just give me my share of equality.” —Nina Simone
74. “When Black women stand up—as they did during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, as they did during the Black liberation era—earth-shaking changes occur.” —Angela Y. Davis, political activist, author and philosopher
75. “Children holding hands, walking with the wind. That is America to me—not just the movement for civil rights but the endless struggle to respond with decency, dignity and a sense of brotherhood to all the challenges that face us as a nation, as a whole.” —John Lewis
76. ”If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” —Frederick Douglass, American social reformer, abolitionist, statesman and a national leader in the abolitionist movement in the late 19th century
77. “I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.” —Rosa Parks, civil rights activist
78. “Sometimes, I am also identified as a civil rights leader or a human rights activist. I would also like to be thought of as a complex, three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood human being with a rich storehouse of experiences, much like everyone else yet unique in my own way, much like everyone else.” —Coretta Scott King, author, activist and civil rights leader in the 1960s who is known as the First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement
79. “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” —Rosa Parks
80. “You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served.” —Nina Simone
Powerful and spiritual Black History Month quotes
81. “Truth is powerful, and it prevails.” —Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and women’s rights activist who gave the famous “Ain’t I a Woman” speech in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention
82. “Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout ‘White power!’, when nobody will shout ‘Black power!’, but everybody will talk about God’s power and human power.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
83. “We were coloreds or Negroes, and to call someone Black was to invite a fistfight. But Malcolm remade the menace inherent in that name into something mystical—Black Power; Black Is Beautiful; It’s a Black thing; you wouldn’t understand.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates, author and journalist
84. “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” —Desmond Tutu, South African theologian and human rights activist
85. “You really can change the world if you care enough.” —Marian Wright Edelman, activist for children’s rights
86. “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” —John Lewis
87. “Give light, and people will find a way.” —Ella Baker, civil rights and human rights activist who founded the Young Negroes Cooperative League, a Black economic empowerment cooperative in the 1930s
88. “We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.” —Angela Davis, American activist, author and academic
89. “I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that’s how I operate my life.” —Oprah Winfrey, talk show host, author, actress, producer and philanthropist
90. “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 champion
91. “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.” —Jesse Owens, Olympic champion
92. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
93. “In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.” —Thurgood Marshall
94. “Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability comes true for us.” —Susan L. Taylor, journalist
95. “We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.” —Jesse Owens
Encouraging Black history quotes from influential Black creatives
96. “I never really had to put much thought into my race, and neither did anybody else. I knew I was Black. I knew there was a history that accompanied my skin color, and my parents taught me to be proud of it. End of story.” —Issa Rae, writer, actor and director
97. “It was such an incredible high to see, for the first time, such a diverse audience walking into the Metropolitan Opera House because a Black woman was going to be up there.” —Misty Copeland, first Black woman to be promoted to principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre’s 75-year history
98. “I’m a Black woman every day, and I’m not confused about that. I’m not worried about that. I don’t need to have a discussion with you about how I feel as a Black woman, because I don’t feel disempowered as a Black woman.” —Shonda Rhimes, screenwriter, producer and author
99. “History, especially in certain places, is not a dead thing. It is a wonderful, almost holy experience.” —Kasi Lemmons, director, actress and filmmaker
100. “The New Black doesn’t blame others for our issues. The New Black dreams and realizes that it’s not a pigmentation; it’s a mentality. And it’s either going to work for you, or it’s going to work against you. And you’ve got to pick the side that you’re going to be on.” —Pharrell Williams, rapper, singer/songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur and fashion designer
101. “We had a Black Wall Street because we wasn’t allowed on [the other] Wall Street. … We had no alternative but to sell to ourselves.” —Dapper Dan, fashion designer and haberdasher
102. “Fashion can be used as a cultural translator and a tool against colonization; it re-establishes the balance between symbols, stories and different worlds through style.” —Stella Jean, fashion designer
103. “Things like racism are institutionalized. You might not know any bigots. You feel like, ‘Well, I don’t hate Black people, so I’m not a racist,’ but you benefit from racism. Just by the merit, the color of your skin. The opportunities that you have, you’re privileged in ways that you might not even realize because you haven’t been deprived of certain things. We need to talk about these things in order for them to change.” —Dave Chapelle, actor, comedian and showrunner
104. “Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” —Dr. Mae Jemison, first African American female astronaut
105. “As Black women, we’re always given these seemingly devastating experiences—experiences that could absolutely break us. But what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly. What we do as Black women is take the worst situations and create from that point.” —Viola Davis, actress
106. “Dreams are lovely, but they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change.” —Shonda Rhimes
107. “You are your best thing.” —Toni Morrison, novelist
108. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” —Alice Walker, novelist and short story writer
109. “I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger.” —Serena Williams, former professional tennis player, known as one of the greatest tennis players of all time
110. “Hold on to your dreams of a better life and stay committed to striving to realize it.” —Earl G. Graves Sr., founder of Black Enterprise magazine
Source:
- History.com: “Carter G. Woodson: The Man Behind Black History Month”
Originally Published: December 31, 1969
