Several Black leaders, in motivating and educating their community and people, used short words that could be termed as “cajoling and motivating”, to fight for freedom, to teach and to educate black people. They came up with powerful quotes that remain relevant through the ages.
Here are 100 black history quotes from powerful leaders:
“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” – John Lewis
“Darkness cannot overcome darkness, only light can do that. Violence can never overcome violence, only peace can do that. Hate can never overcome hate, only love can do that.” -John Lewis
“Whatever good work you do, whatever powerful, profound work, do it because it’s right or because it’s necessary. Do it to make change for the better. Do it because you know you must. Don’t do it for credit.” -John Lewis
“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
“A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things.” -Barack Obama
“In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.” -Barack Obama
“We don’t ask you to believe in our ability to bring change, rather, we ask you to believe in yours.” -Barack Obama
“Our stories may be singular, but our destination is shared.” -Barack Obama
“The time is always right to do what is right.” -Martin Luther King Jr
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” -Martin Luther King Jr
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”-Martin Luther King Jr
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“We must never forget that Black History is American History. The achievements of African-Americans have contributed to our nation’s greatness.” -Martin Luther King Jr
“It always seems impossible, until it is done.” -Nelson Mandela
“Lead from the back and let others believe they are in front.” -Nelson Mandela
“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” -Nelson Mandela
“Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world.” -Nelson Mandela
“Truth does not change, only our awareness of it.” -Malcolm X
“If you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.” -Malcolm X
“It is only after the deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come.” -Malcolm X
“If you want something, you had better make some noise.”-Malcolm X
“Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.” – Michelle Obama
“Success isn’t about how your life looks to others. It’s about how it feels to you.” -Michelle Obama
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” -Maya Angelou
“The desire to reach the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise and most possible.” -Maya Angelou
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” -Maya Angelou
“The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.” -Maya Angelou
“Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” -Toni Morisson
“My world did not shrink because I was a black female writer. It just got bigger.” -Toni Morisson
“If you can’t imagine it, you can’t have it.” -Toni Morisson
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” -Muhammad Ali
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” -Muhammad Ali
“Don’t count the days; make the days count.” -Muhammad Ali
“Bragging is when a person says something and can’t do it. I do what I say.” -Muhammad Ali
“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.” -Muhammad Ali
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” -Muhammad Ali
“You are responsible for how people remember you or don’t. So don’t take it lightly.” -Kobe Bryant
“Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.” -Kobe Bryant
Dedication makes dreams come true.” -Kobe Bryant
“Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success.” -Kobe Bryant
“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
“There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive. of freedom, keep going.” -Harriet Tubman
“If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there’s shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.” -Harriet Tubman
“They say to serve is to love. I think to serve is to heal, too.” -Viola Davis
Do not live someone else’s life and someone else’s idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you. Womanhood is everything that’s inside of you.” -Viola Davis
Happiness comes from living as you need to, as you want to. As your inner voice tells you to. Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.” -Shonda Rhimes
“Ditch the dream. Be a doer, not a dreamer. -Shonda Rhimes
“I do not think it matters, what I believe, only what I do.” – Jackie Robinson
“I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” -Harriet Tubman
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” -Jackie Robinson
“At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t.” -Tina Turner
It’s a mistake to think you are what you put on yourself. I believe that a lot of how you look has to do with how you feel about yourself and your life.” -Tina Turner
“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” -Dr. Mae Jemison
“The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” -W.E.B. Du Bois
“Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability comes true for us.” -Susan Taylor
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” -Frederick Douglass
“Freedom is never given; it is won.” -Philip Randolph
“Truth is powerful and it prevails.” -Sojourner Truth
“I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.” -Morgan Freeman
“Character is power.” -Booker Washington
“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.” -James Baldwin
“If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.” -Marcus Garvey
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” -Alice Walker
“Each of you, as an individual, must pick your own goals. Listen to others, but do not become a blind follower.” -Thurgood Marshall
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” -Coretta Scott King
“When men oppress their fellow-men, the oppressor ever finds, in the character of the oppressed, a full justification for his oppression.” -Henry Louis Gates
“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” -Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
“A person doesn’t have to change who he is to become better.” -Sidney Poitier
“To make our way, we must have firm resolve, persistence, and tenacity. We must gear ourselves to work hard all the way. We can never let up.” -Ralph Bunche
“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” -Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
“I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.” -Serena Williams
“A person is a person through other persons; you can’t be human in isolation; you are human only in relationships.” -Desmond Tutu
“Without vision, people perish, and without courage and inspiration dreams die.” -Rosa Parks
“If we as a people realized the greatness from which we came we would be less likely to disrespect ourselves.” -Marcus Garvey
“The best way to guarantee a loss is to quit.” -Morgan Freeman
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” -Michael Jordan
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair.” -Shirley Chisolm
“While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.” -Chinua Achebe
“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.” -Oprah Winfrey
“One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap.” -Ida B. Wells
“Let’s speak the truth: People are protesting because Black people have been treated as less than human in America. Because our country has never fully addressed the systemic racism that has plagued our country since its earliest days. It is the duty of every American to fix. No longer can some wait on the sidelines, hoping for incremental change. In times like this, silence is complicity.” -Kamala Harris
“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
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” -Coretta Scott King
“The first step toward tolerance is respect and the first step toward respect is knowledge.” -Henry Louis Gates
“Religion without humanity is very poor human stuff.” -Sojourner Truth
“You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That’s a part of it.” -Denzel Washington
“Blackness is a state of mind and I identify with the black community. Mainly, because I realized, early on, when I walk into a room, people see a black woman, they don’t see a white woman. So out of that reason alone, I identify more with the black community.” -Halle Berry
“I don’t like to lose — at anything — yet I’ve grown most not from victories, but setbacks.” -Serena Williams
“We face neither East nor West; We face forward.” -Kwame Nkrumah
“People have the power we give them. Words have the power we give them.” -Whoopi Goldberg
“I never had an occasion to question color, therefore, I only saw myself as what I was… a human being.” -Sidney Poitier
“Just don’t give up what you’re trying to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” -Ella Fitzgerald
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” -Angela Y. Davis
“Take advantage of every opportunity; where there is none, make it for yourself.” -Marcus Garvey
“We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes that we hold of ourselves.” -Shirley Chisolm
“The great courageous act that we must all do, is to have the courage to step out of our history and past so that we can live our dreams.” -Oprah Winfrey
“If women want any more rights than they’ve got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it.” -Sojourner Truth
“I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you’re prepared for it.” -Denzel Washington
“Every woman’s success should be an inspiration to another. We’re strongest when we cheer each other on.” -Serena Williams
“Dr. Martin Luther King is not a black hero. He is an American hero.” -Morgan Freeman