Quote collection
79 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Black men and women who refuse to live under oppression are dangerous to white society because they become symbols of hope to their brothers and sisters, inspiring them to follow their example."
"Youths are passed through schools that don’t teach, then forced to search for jobs that don’t exist and finally left stranded in the street to stare at the glamorous lives advertised around them."
"Any unarmed people are slaves, or are subject to slavery at any given moment. If the guns are taken out of the hands of the people and only the pigs have guns, then it's off to the concentration camps, the gas chambers, or whatever the fascists in America come up with. One of the democratic rights of the United States, the Second Amendment to the Constitution, gives the people the right to bear arms. However, there is a greater right; the right of human dignity that gives all men the right to defend themselves."
"The task is to transform society; only the people can do that - not heroes, not celebrities, not stars."
"The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution."
"Institutions work this way. A son is murdered by the police, and nothing is done. The institutions send the victim's family on a merry-go-round, going from one agency to another, until they wear out and give up. this is a very effective way to beat down poor and oppressed people, who do not have the time to prosecute their cases. Time is money to poor people. To go to Sacramento means loss of a day's pay - often a loss of job. If this is a democracy, obviously it is a bourgeois democracy limited to the middle and upper classes. Only they can afford to participate in it."
"Power is the ability to define phenomena, and make it act in a desired manner."
"Laws should be made to serve the people. People should not be made to serve the laws."
"Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny."
"I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people."
"You can kill my body, and you can take my life but you can never kill my soul. My soul will live forever!"
"We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism."
"You can jail a Revolutionary, but you can't jail the Revolution."
"I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images."
"The policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishments hand. They make the racist secure in his racism."
"You can only die once, so do not die a thousand times worrying about it."
"The racist dog policemen must withdraw immediately from our communities, cease their wanton murder and brutality and torture of black people, or face the wrath of the armed people."
"The nature of a panther is that he never attacks. But if anyone attacks or backs into a corner, the panther comes up to wipe that aggressor or that attacker out."
"Too many so-called leaders of the movement have been made into celebrities and their revolutionary fervor destroyed by mass media. They become Hollywood objects and lose identification with the real issues. The task is to transform society; only the people can do that"
"White America has seen to it that Black history has been suppressed in schools and in American history books. The bravery of hundreds of our ancestors who took part in slave rebellions has been lost in the mists of time, since plantation owners did their best to prevent any written accounts of uprisings."