The injustice that has been inflicted upon Negroes in this country by Uncle Sam is criminal. Malcolm X, 1972
We declare our right on this Earth to be a man. To be a human being. To be respected as a human being. To be given the rights of a human being. In this society, on this Earth this day which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary. ibid.
You’ve got to be realistic, Malcolm. You are a nigger. ibid. teacher
We are non-violent with people who are non-violent with us. ibid. Malcolm
They are afraid that I will tell the real reason I am out of the Black Muslim movement. ibid.
My house was burned, it was bombed by the Black Muslim movement. ibid.
I have the greatest affection for blacks but I know they’re not going to make it for five hundred years ... They steal, dishonest, but they do have a concept of family life. Playhouse Presents: Nixon’s the One, Nixon to Bob Haldeman, Sky Arts 2012
There were black people in Britain before there were English. Michael Wood, The Great British Story: A People’s History 1/8: Britannia, BBC 2012
The first Africans living in Bristol are recorded in the 1560s. Michael Wood, The Great British Story: A People’s History: Lost Worlds & New Worlds V
Evidence of Tudor mixed marriages. ibid.
The Tudor age saw the beginnings of Britain’s black communities. ibid.
If the colour bar is not broken down now it will break down the Empire. We’re proud of our heritage and do not want to be subjected to any experience which will rob us of that pride or which will cast a slur there on. Dr Harold Moody, League of Coloured Peoples
Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow. And segregation forever. George Wallace, Alabama governor
Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people. Coretta Scott King
All I demand for the black man is that the white people shall take their heels off his neck and let him have a chance to rise by his own efforts. William Wells Brown
That goal of black theology is the destruction of everything white, so that blacks can be liberated from aliens gods. Professor James A Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation p62
The only thing that white people have that black people need or should want is power – and no-one holds power for ever. James Arthur Baldwin
For young black men, in the late teens or early twenties growing up in the early 1960s, you were a citizen of the country and yet everywhere you went there were signs reading White and Coloured ... Constant daily reminders you were a second-class citizen. Manning Marable, Columbia University
How can we say to a Negro in Jackson when war comes you will be an American citizen but in the meantime you’re a citizen of Mississippi, and we cannot help you? How by any moral standards can we tell our Negro citizens our forefathers brought your forefathers over here against their will and we are going to make you pay for it? Yet isn’t that what this argument boils down to? The United States is dominated by white people politically and economically. The question is whether we in this position of dominance are going to have not the charity but the wisdom to stop penalising our fellow citizens whose only former sin is that they were born. Robert Kennedy
Black Power: Statement By National Committee Of Negro Churches ... When American leaders decide to serve the real welfare of people instead of war and destruction; when American leaders are forced to make the rebuilding of our cities first priority on the nation’s agenda; when American leaders are forced by American people to quit misusing and abusing American power then will the cry for black power become inaudible ... We deplore the overt violence of riots, but we believe it is more important to focus on the real sources of these eruptions. The New York Times Sunday full-page statement placed by 51 pastors 31st July 1966
Death Row: 46% are White; 42% are Black. But Blacks only make up 12% of the population. Penn & Teller, Bullshit! s4e3: The Death Penalty, Showtime 2006
In the past we were all dark-skinned. Dr Alice Roberts, Horizon: Are We Still Evolving? BBC 2011
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
They’ve had a harder time, they had to work harder for the food, harder to make a living, and they just got conditioned to be tough. Muhammad Ali, interview David Frost, cited The Then and Now of Muhammad Ali
All white people are devils. ibid. 1968
I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin’ hell. But as long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free. Muhammad Ali
There are probably no great compliments that I could pay my next guest that he hasn’t already paid himself. But I happily join him and millions of others – he’s without one of the quartz figures the world has ever known. Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes ***** Cavett, Sky 2020
The things that you all have done to us is worse than the devil you told us about underground. ibid. Ali
Watching Dick Cavett – it was some of the most memorable times I remember on television – I remember watching Dick Cavett and Ali. ibid. Reverend Al Sharpton
Everybody thought that Liston was going to destroy him. ibid.
After winning the heavyweight championship, Muhammad Ali successfully defended the title nine times between May 1965 and March 1967. ibid. caption
He felt an obligation to uplift blacks, and he saw the Nation of Islam as a vehicle to do it. ibid.
People dying and being shot … I just feel so guilty laughing and joking like everything is so rosy when people are hungry and can’t find work, and out of work, and getting being put out of apartments … I’m just dedicated to it. ibid.
We’ve been in jail four hundred years. ibid.
He’s [Ali] perfect. He’s not as outspoken as Malcolm. He’s more willing to give the Party line. ibid. Randy Roberts
Sell a man as merchandise
On his body, put a price,
So my friends, it’s easy to tell,
White man’s heaven, black man’s hell. ibid. Muhammad Ali sings
When Ali called him [Frazier] an Uncle Tom, it was cruel and it was personal. Now, Ali had done similar things with other opponents, but not like this … His taunting of Frazier was over the line. ibid.
When you saw me go down, it was hard … I was quite sure I was winning on points. ibid. Ali to Cavett re Frazier fight
From the comeback fight with Jerry Quarry in 1970 through the third Joe Frazier fight in 1975, Ali fought 22 times. ibid. caption
This is the twenty-seventh time I have been arrested and I ain’t going to jail no more! The only way we gonna stop them white men from whuppin’ us is to take over. What we gonna start sayin’ now is Black Power! Stokely Carmichael
Black power can be clearly defined for those who do not attach the fears of white America to their questions about it. We should begin with the basic fact that black Americans have two problems: they are poor and they are black. All other problems arise from this two-sided reality: lack of education, the so-called apathy of black men. Any program to end racism must address itself to that double reality. Stokely Carmichael, What We Want 22nd September 1966
Ultimately, the economic foundations of this country must be shaken if black people are to control their lives. The colonies of the United States – and this includes the black ghettos within its borders, north and south – must be liberated. For a century, this nation has been like an octopus of exploitation, its tentacles stretching from Mississippi and Harlem to South America, the Middle East, southern Africa, and Vietnam; the form of exploitation varies from area to area but the essential result has been the same – a powerful few have been maintained and enriched at the expense of the poor and voiceless colored masses. This pattern must be broken. ibid.
The adoption of the concept of Black Power is one of the most legitimate and healthy developments in American politics and race relations in our time ... It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to begin to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations and to support those organizations. It is a call to reject the racist institutions and values of this society. Stokely Carmichael & Charles Vernon Hamilton, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America
I dislike the idea that if you’re a black person in America then you must be called an African-American. I’m not an African. I’m an American. Just call me black, if you want to call me anything. Whoopi Goldberg, cited Irish Times 25th April 1998
I had learned that I was in two wars: one against a foreign enemy and the other against prejudice at home. Jackie Robinson