In order for us as poor and oppressed people to become part of a society that is meaningful, the system under which we now exist has to be radically changed ... It means facing a system that does not lend its self to your needs and devising means by which you change that system. Ella Baker
To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. James Baldwin
We ask for nothing that is not right, and herein lies the great power of our demand. Paul Robeson
It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. W E B du Bois
We do not need to minimize the poverty of the ghetto or the suffering inflicted by whites on blacks in order to see that the increasingly dangerous and unpredictable conditions of middle-class life have given rise to similar strategies for survival. Indeed the attraction of black culture for disaffected whites suggests that black culture now speaks to a general condition. Christopher Lasch
If we became students of Malcolm X, we would not have young black men out there killing each other like they’re killing each other now. Young black men would not be impregnating young black women at the rate going on now. We’d not have the drugs we have now, or the alcoholism. Spike Lee
Songs of liberation – who can lock them up? The spirit of freedom – who can jail it? A people’s unity – what lash can beat it down? Civil rights – what doubletalk can satisfy our needs? Paul Robeson
What then did you expect when you unbound the gag that muted those black mouths? That they would chant your praises? Did you think that when those heads that our fathers had forcibly bowed down to the ground were raised again, you would find adoration in their eyes? Jean-Paul Sartre
I suggested that we use the panther as our symbol and call our political vehicle the Black Panther Party. The panther is a fierce animal, but he will not attack until he is backed into a corner; then he will strike out. Huey Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 1973
Blacks were in trouble in Africa, then they made the middle passage and they were in more trouble, then they landed in America, they landed in the Caribbean, and they were constantly in trouble; and I got very tired of it. I said, I want to find some story where Blacks are doing things to people and not being done things by people. C L R James, interview Russell Hardy
On the field blacks have been able to be super-giants. But once our playing days are over this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again. Hank Aaron
I am pleased God made my skin black. I wish He had made it thicker. Curt Flood
As long as I appear to ignore insults and injury I was a martyred hero to a lot of people. But the minute I began to sound off, I became a swell-head wise guy and upperty nigger. Jackie Robinson
Do you have blacks, too? George Bush to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington DC 8th November 2001
On 16th October 1968 Tommy Smith and John Carlos’s controversial demonstration stunned the world. Yet it wasn’t the only black protest on the victory rostrum. And nor was it spontaneous. 1968 Olympics: Black Power Salute
The black power disciples Tommy Smith and John Carlos, the Olympic 200 meters gold and bronze medallists, have been suspended by the United States Olympic Committee and given forty-eight hours to leave Mexico. BBC Good Morning Mexico news report
You have the leading arm of Tommy Smith – his right arm raised. And you have the left arm of John Carlos and it forms that nice arc shape that shows the unity of black America. So it becomes an aesthetic moment. Professor Ben Carrington
We – as individuals – have been concerned with the place of the black man in American Society and his struggle for equal rights. As members of the United States Olympic team, each of us has come to feel a moral commitment to support our black teammates in their efforts to dramatize the injustices and inequalities which permeate our society. This commitment led us to initiate conversations with the Olympic Project for Human Rights. OPHR statement sent to individual competitors
During the campaign waged by the national political police against the Black Panthers – including assassination, instigation of ghetto riots, and a variety of other means – the FBI estimated the ‘hard core members’ of the targeted organization at only eight hundred ... The repressive agencies of the state proceeded with a campaign of violence and disruption to ensure that the Panthers did not succeed in organizing as a substantial social or political force. Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy
Though black fighters were still prevented from competing for the ultimate boxing prize, the heavyweight championship of the world, at lower weights there seemed less compunction on behalf of promoters to rule out ‘mixed’ matches. And in the confused, irrational world of racial discrimination, black fighters from abroad were considered foreigners first, Negroes second. Thus Berg versus Chocolate would be presented as a fight between two foreigners – an English Jew and a Cuban Negro.
Kid Chocolate was, without doubt, the best boxer Jack Berg would ever meet. In 1930 he had an air of invincibility about him, unbeaten in over 160 fights and still only 19 years old. John Harding, ‘When Kid Meets Kid’
Rozzer: I’m looking for two Negroes in a white car.
Washington: Any two will do? The Hurricane 1999 starring Denzel Washington & Vicellous Reon Shannon & Deborah Kara Unger & Live Schreiber & John Hannah & Dan Hedaya & Debbi Morgan & Clancy Brown & David Paymer & Harris Yulin & Rob Steiger & Vincent Pastore & Beatrice Winde et al, director Norman Jewison, Washington and driver
In the late 1990s, the US Department of Education undertook a monumental project called the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study … The result is an incredibly rick set of data … Even when the parents’ income and education are controlled for, the black-white gap reappears within just two years of a child’s entering school. Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner, Freakonomics
[Roland] Fryer came to wonder: is distinctive black culture a cause of the economic disparity between blacks and whites or merely a reflection of it? ibid.
So how does it matter if you have a very white name or a very black name? ibid.
A person with a distinctly black name … does have a worse life outcome. ibid.
One could rattle off all the statistics about blacks not doing so well. You can look at the black-white differential in out-of-wedlock births or infant mortality or life expectancy. Black are the worst-performing ethnic group on SATs. Blacks earn less than whites. They are still just not doing well, period. I basically want to figure out where blacks went wrong, and I want to devote my life to this. Professor Roland G Fryer
‘We referred to ourselves as The Vanguard. And we were setting by example a new course we wanted the entire community to follow.’ Storyville: The Black Panthers, BBC 2015
‘Our attack was not only against white supremacy but it was also against capitalism.’ ibid.
‘This was all-out attack on the Black Panther Party.’ ibid.
‘It was a split in the Party and within days we began to feel just how bad it was.’ ibid.
There are over 20 Panthers who remain in prison. ibid.
Spinning records ain’t paying none of the bills around here. Straight Outta Compton 2015 starring O’Shea Jackson & Corey Hawkins & Jason Mitchell & Aldis Hodge & Neil Brown & Paul Giamatti & Marlon Yates & Corey Reynolds & Tate Ellington & Alesandro Shipp & Angela Elayne Gibbs & Bruce Beatty et al, director F Gary Gray, mother to son
Taking orders on a bullshit ass job. ibid. son to mother
You think niggas out here playin’? Huh? Niggas die every die. ibid. gangsta to kids on bus
Let me tell you what I see here: a lot of raw talent. Swagger. Bravado. People are scared of you guys. They think you’re dangerous, but the world needs to hear it. ibid. agent
You can’t come down here and harass these guys because they’re black! ibid. rozzers
It’s time to tell the history of Britain in black and well as white. It’s the story of people who came here to make a better life. The story of people who were carried here by force. It’s a history written into the landscape and into the faces of the people who live here. David Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History I: First Encounters, BBC 2016
Remembering the full story of how we got here is now more urgent than ever. ibid.
Hadrian’s Wall was the northern limit of a multiracial empire that stretches as far as north Africa. ibid.