Black History is American History. Every February, we spotlight key figures of Black America from The Middle Passage in 1619 to the present day, celebrating their achievements and triumphs. We also acknowledge the hardships and setbacks that come with being Black in the United States, from the founding of the colonies through 400 years of enslavement, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, civil rights activism, ongoing social justice movements, and more. Despite trials and obstacles, Black Americans—even before the establishment was willing to call them American—continued to persevere, producing literature and art, forming communities around a shared existence and culture, and fighting for the freedoms of all people in the United States and abroad, even when such liberties were not fully available to them.

Through centuries of slavery, inequality, segregation, discrimination, and battles for rights and recognition into today, Black Americans have done the work to make their lives, and the lives of all Americans, better in both everyday and monumental ways. Whether writers, poets, entertainers, activists, political leaders, scientists, entrepreneurs, or some combination thereof, Black Americans have frequently offered exactly the right words when they were needed most.

To celebrate Black Americans and their impact on America's history, culture, and promise, here are 175+ meaningful and uplifting quotes from Black writers, thought leaders, and trailblazers from the past and in the present:

On Truth, Justice, and Democracy

1. "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "The Other America" from The Radical King

2. "Justice may be slow and invisible, but it always renders its true verdict in the end." — Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad

3. "If we are truly a great nation, the truth cannot destroy us." — Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project

4. "I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole." — Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

5. "Truth does not change, only our awareness of it." — Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

6. "You don't have to think about doing the right thing. If you're for the right thing, then you do it without thinking." — Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

7. "All too often, when we see injustices, both great and small, we think, That's terrible, but we do nothing. We say nothing. We let other people fight their own battles. We remain silent because silence is easier... When we say nothing, when we do nothing, we are consenting to these trespasses against us." — Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

8. "The fact is that justice is indivisible; injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "The Other America" from The Radical King

9. "America loves the myth of a meritocracy more than anything else, because it lets us ignore the reality of the impact of bigotry." — Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism

10. "And so the world watches America—the only great power in history made up of people from every corner of the planet, comprising every race and faith and cultural practice—to see if our experiment in democracy can work. To see if we can do what no other nation has ever done. To see if we can actually live up to the meaning of our creed." — Barack Obama, A Promised Land

11. "What the people want is simple: they want an America as good as its promise." — Barbara Jordan, We Rise

12. "We actually don't give a f**k about shiny, polished candidates. We care about justice." — Patrisse Khan-Cullors, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

13. "I chose to speak truth. Even when it's uncomfortable. Even when it leaves people feeling uneasy. When you speak truth, people won't always walk away feeling good—and sometimes you won't feel so great about the reaction you receive. But at least all parties will walk away knowing it was an honest conversation." — Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold

14. "Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "I Have a Dream Speech"

15. "That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it, because .being American is more than a pride we inherit—It's the past we step into, and how we repair it." — Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb

On Oppression and Freedom

16. "Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them." — Assata Shakur, Assata

17. "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

18. "All men are created equal, unless we decide you are not a man." — Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad

19. "I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight." — Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

20. "To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships." — W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

21. "Repressive societies always seemed to understand the danger of 'wrong' ideas." — Octavia E. Butler, Kindred

22, "But for a society build on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress." — N. K. Jemisin, The Stone Sky

23. "Whoever debases others is debasing himself." — James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

24. "All of us—who might have probed space, or cured cancer, or built industries—were, instead, black victims of the white man's American social system." — Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

25. "Any community seriously concerned with its own freedom has to be concerned about other peoples’ freedom as well." — Assata Shakur, Assata

26. "Now no one can fault the conqueror for writing history the way he sees it, and certainly not for digesting human events and discovering their patterns according to his point of view. But we can fault him for not owning up to what his point of view is." — Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard

27. "I admit that the slave does sometimes sing, dance and appear to be merry. But what does this prove? It only proves to my mind, that though slavery is armed with a thousand stings, it is not able entirely to kill the elastic spirit of the bondman." — Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom (AmazonClassics Edition)

28. "We were not actors but acted upon. We were not contributors, just recipients. White people enslaved us, and white people freed us. Black people could choose either to take advantage of that freedom or to squander it, as our depictions in the media seemed to suggest so many of us were doing." — Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project

29. "Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat." — Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

30. "We must abolish the entitlement that deludes us into believing that we have the right to make assumptions about people's identities and project those assumptions onto their genders and bodies." — Janet Mock, Redefining Realness

31. "We say, hold on to the real facts of history as they are, but complete such knowledge by studying also the history of races and nations which have been purposely ignored." — Carter G. Woodson, The Miseducation of the Negro

32. "The most marvelous, unbelievable thing about Black people in America is that they exist. Every imaginable monstrosity that evil can conjure has been inflicted on this population, yet they have not been extinguished." — Ibram X. Kendi, Four Hundred Souls

33. "Black people always found a way in the most miserable circumstances. If we didn't, we'd have been exterminated by the white man long ago." — Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle

34. "Are you going to let someone else's view of who you should be, and what you should do, hold you back?" — Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

35. "It's not till she's outside that she realizes what she was looking for in there. What she's been looking for all these years. What she realizes now she no longer needs. Permission." — Tochi Onyebuchi, Riot Baby

36. "When I discover who I am, I’ll be free." — Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

On Fear, Courage, and Perseverance

37. "Most people run from what they’re afraid of. I run toward it. That doesn’t mean I think I’m bulletproof (I’ve learned the hard way that I’m not) or that I’m unaware of danger. I experience fear as much as the next man. But one of the greatest mistakes people can make is becoming comfortable with their fears." — Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter

38. "To soar toward what's possible, you must leave behind what's comfortable." — Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

39. "There's nothing easy about finding your way through a world loaded with obstacles that others can't or don't see." — Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry

40. "If I don't poke my head out of my shell and show people who I am, all anyone will ever think I am is my shell." — Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes

41. "I knew my life would be a fight, and I realized this: I had it in me." — Viola Davis, Finding Me

42. "I learnt that the only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you’ll finish it, even if in the beginning you think you can’t do it at all." — Langston Hughes, The Big Sea

43. "When your dreams are bigger than the places you find yourself in, sometimes you need to seek out your own reminders that there is more. And there is always more waiting for you on the other side of fear." — Elaine Welteroth, More Than Enough

44. "No matter how often you fall from grace, what matters most is how many times you get up." — Taraji P. Henson, Around the Way Girl

45. "You don't have to become something you're not to be better than you were." — Sidney Poitier, Measure of a Man

46. "Courage does not always roar." — Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone

47. "It's okay to be discouraged. It's natural. But in the discouragement, find your courage." — Tabitha Brown, Feeding the Soul

48. "For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end." — Michelle Obama, Becoming

49. "Growth requires movement. And often, the only way forward is through an exit door." — Alicia Keys, More Myself

50. "No one ever told her how to get her heart to abandon a dream once the dreamer stops dreaming." — Kaia Alderson, Sisters in Arms

51. "I am stronger than I am broken." — Roxane Gay, Hunger

52. "If you're too weak to handle failure and disappointment, then you're too weak to handle success, which will only end up damaging your life and happiness." — Kevin Hart, I Can't Make This Up

53. "No man knows what he can do until he tries." — Carter G. Woodson, The Miseducation of the Negro

54. "Here’s to us being afraid and doing it anyway." — Gabrielle Union, We're Going to Need More Wine

55. "That's all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don't know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won't matter if we don't survive these times." — Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

56. "I did infer, however, that submitting to melancholy would undo the labors of those who had come before me, that I had an obligation to resist instead of giving in. I rose unsteadily to my feet, aware of my shackles, but determined to somehow overcome them." — Jabari Asim, Yonder

57. "When the world tells you to shrink, expand." — Elaine Welteroth, More Than Enough

58. "Question yourself, yes, but don't doubt yourself. There is a difference." — Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

59. "Be brave. Be amazing. Be worthy." — Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes

60. "To those who’ve survived: Breathe. That’s it. Once more. Good. You’re good. Even if you’re not, you’re alive. That is a victory." — N. K. Jemisin, The Stone Sky

On Reading, Writing, and Awakening

61. "The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive." — Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

62. "Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books—where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables as we did in Kansas." — Langston Hughes, The Big Sea

63. "Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read... Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds." — Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

64. "So my advice to other young writers: Read widely. Study other writers. Be thoughtful, Then go out and do the work of changing the form, finding your own voice, and saying what you need to say. Be fearless. And care." — Glory Edim, Well-Read Black Girl

65. "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." — Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

66. "With really good literature you’re allowed to take multiple journeys as your perspective shifts over time. It continues to resonate, as you find different ways of entering and engaging with the narrative." — Glory Edim, Well-Read Black Girl

67. "Art is not mere entertainment or decoration, it has meaning, and we both want and need to fathom that meaning." — Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard

68. "To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread." — James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

69. "Discovering what you don’t want is just as important as finding out what you do." — Elaine Welteroth, More Than Enough

70. "My biggest discovery was that you can literally re-create your life." — Viola Davis, Finding Me

71. "Education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent. Nevertheless, men strive to know." — W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

72. "I started teaching myself to contort my rage into more valuable shapes; it doesn't disappear that way, just works for you instead of against you."— Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project

73. "You hand us the fatback of a pig and we use it to make savory greens. You hand us a fledgling radio station and we turn it into a media empire ... We are alchemists. So our ability to transform our lived experience—even the ones plagued by trauma—is the very reason why we should internalize our acceptance and release ourselves from any obligation to be something other than who we are, individually and collectively." — Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts, Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration

74. "Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better." — Carter G. Woodson, The Miseducation of the Negro

75. "We put our kids to fifteen years of quick-cut advertising, passive television watching, and sadistic video games, and we expect to see emerge a new generation of calm, compassionate, and engaged human beings?" — Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man

76. "Children don't carry the weight of history, so their capacity for heavy things might be greater. But few adults believe this, so we pass along only what we think they can bear. Children wonder later why we didn't tell them everything so they could avoid our mistakes." — Daniel Black, Don't Cry for Me

77. "More people's lives have been shaped by violence than we like to think. And more people's lives have been shaped by silence than we think." — Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

78. "Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own." — Michelle Obama, Becoming

79. "A writer's life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity." — Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard

80. "Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning." — Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

On Empowerment, Pride, and Achievement

81. "I believe that each of us carries a bit of inner brightness, something entirely unique and individual, a flame that's worth protecting. When we are able to recognize our own light, we become empowered to use it. When we learn to foster what's unique in the people around us, we become better able to build compassionate communities and make meaningful change." — Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry

82. "History shows that it does not matter who is in power or what revolutionary forces take over the government, those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they had in the beginning." — Carter G. Woodson, The Miseducation of the Negro

83. "I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceased to be a man." — Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

84. "Sometimes being a good ally is about opening the door for someone instead of insisting that your voice is the only one that matters." — Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism

85. "For every door that’s been opened to me, I’ve tried to open my door to others. And here is what I have to say, finally: Let’s invite one another in." — Michelle Obama, Becoming

86. "I believe in living. I believe in birth. I believe in the sweat of love and in the fire of truth. And I believe that a lost ship, steered by tired, seasick sailors, can still be guided him to port." — Assata Shakur, Assata

87. "I call something a miracle when an ordinary person achieves something extraordinary. We all have the potential to create miraculous changes." — Tina Turner, Happiness Becomes You

88. "If you know what you want, ask for it. And be specific—you just might get it." — Elaine Welteroth, More Than Enough

89. "If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others." — Michelle Obama, Becoming

90. "Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it." — Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

91. "No woman has to be respectable to be valuable." — Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism

92. "Pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you." — Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

93. "Either you seize what may turn out to be the only chance you have, or you decide you’re willing to live with the knowledge that the chance has passed you by." — Barack Obama, A Promised Land

94. "Don't sell yourself short. You will meet people along the way who will be lining up to place limits on you. You don't need to beat them to the punch." — Leslie Odom Jr., Failing Up

95. "When life forces you to face yourself, what awaits in the mirror is a gift: vulnerability." — Alicia Keys, More Myself

96. "I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence." — Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

97. "I am what I have become." — Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man

98. "When children are small, our desires seem small, even if we want the sky. Anything we want seems to be only a matter of time and effort away. It’s too early to imagine what’s already holding you back." — Ashley C. Ford, Somebody’s Daughter

99. "We should seek out all the doors which still remain ajar, however slight the opening might be." — Angela Y. Davis, If They Come in the Morning…

100. "When you don't know your true value, you see the world through the lens of how you don't measure up." — Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

101. "Rising from the ashes of my earlier life, I learned that our thoughts, words, and deeds are unified through spiritual practice. They are made whole within us. And when our thoughts, words, and deeds are aligned with our most positive intentions, magic happens." — Tina Turner, Happiness Becomes You

102. "Your world is only as small as you make it." — Gabrielle Union, We're Going to Need More Wine

103. "The truth is, I’ve never been a big believer in destiny. I worry that it encourages resignation in the down-and-out and complacency among the powerful." — Barack Obama, A Promised Land

104. "You could convince anyone you belonged somewhere if you acted like you did." — Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

105. "When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example." — Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

106. "My humanness doesn’t insulate me from racism or sexism. In fact, I think I can deal effectively with the world precisely because I am a black woman who is so comfortable in my black-womanness. I know what I can accomplish. And anything I have accomplished, I did so not in spite of being a black woman, but because I am a black woman." — Gabrielle Union, We're Going to Need More Wine

107. "Self-definition and self-determination is about the many varied decisions that we make to compose and journey toward ourselves, about the audacity and strength to proclaim, create, and evolve into who we know ourselves to be. It’s okay if your personal definition is in a constant state of flux as you navigate the world." — Janet Mock, Redefining Realness

108. "You were never just you, and you owed it to the people you cared about to remember that. Because the people you loved were part of your identity, too. Perhaps the biggest part." — Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake

109. "You have to give yourself permission, even when you’re doing it." — Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard

110. "It’s my devout conviction that if I’m not enabling and encouraging the underprivileged and the vulnerable, then I haven’t justified their confidence in me, and I haven’t done sufficient justice to their gifts." — Billy Porter, Unprotected

111. "In pursuing your highest ambitions, don’t let your personal safety diminish the safety of your stepsister. In wielding the power that is deservedly yours, don’t permit it to enslave your stepsisters. Let your might and your power emanate from that place in you that is nurturing and caring." — Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard

112. "I’m grateful for all the breaks and honors and opportunities I’ve had, but I always believe I won’t have it made until the humblest black kid in the most remote backwoods of America has it made." — Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made

113. "Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim or diminish your light." — John Lewis, Across That Bridge

114. "One light feeds another. One strong family lends strength to more. One engaged community can ignite those around it. This is the power of the light we carry." — Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry

115. "In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn." — Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

On Race, Reckoning, and Revolution

116. "Race is the child of racism, not the father." — Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

117. "I feel that if we don't take seriously the ways in which racism is embedded in structures of institutions, if we assume that there must be an identifiable racist who is the perpetrator, then we won't ever succeed in eradicating racism." — Angela Y. Davis, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

118. "Turning a blind eye to our history has not saved us from its consequences." — Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

119. "Yes, representation matters, but there is more to transformation than looking into a book the way you would look into a mirror." — Glory Edim, Well-Read Black Girl

120. "The discussion of representation is one that has been repeated over and over again, and the solution has always been that it’s up to us to support, promote, and create the images that we want to see." — Issa Rae, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

121. "When Black women assert themselves, that somehow threatens people. This happens in retail situations, corporate offices, and school hallways. A Black woman can be minding her own business, and how she responds to provocation or even a random question will be used against her." — Gabrielle Union, You Got Anything Stronger?

122. "In the dark, you could never be too black. In the dark, everyone was the same color." — Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

123. "I don’t foresee, or want, a color-blind, race-neutral environment. The nineteenth century was the time for that. It’s too late now. Our race-inflected culture not only exists, it thrives. The question is whether it thrives as a virus or a bountiful harvest of possibilities." — Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard

124. "Just walking through this life as a Black person, and actually surviving that, was and still is an ovation-worthy performance."— Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

125. "My parents gave me the pep talk when I started school, the same speech all black parents give their kids: You're gonna have to be bigger, badder, better, just to be considered equal. You're gonna have to do twice as much work and you're not going to get any credit for your accomplishments or for overcoming adversity. Most black people grow accustomed to the fact that we have to excel just to be seen as existing, and this is a lesson passed down from generation to generation." — Gabrielle Union, We're Going to Need More Wine

126. "It’s funny about 'passing.' We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it." —Nella Larsen, Passing

127. "And if the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it. For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become." — James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

128. "The price of equality, or at least of the promise of an equal society, is vigilance against those who would make government the tool of hierarchy." — Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project

129. "A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait

130. "Social transformation is not measured in weeks or months, but in generation." — Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

131. "Revolution is about change, and the first place the change begins is in yourself." — Assata Shakur, Assata

132. "I propose to take our countrymen’s claims of American exceptionalism seriously, which is to say I propose subjecting our country to an exceptional moral standard." — Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

133. "When we are creating a shared history, what we remember is just as revelatory as what we forget." — Ibram X. Kendi, Four Hundred Souls

134. "Knowing your generational story firms the ground upon which you stand. It makes your life, your struggles and triumphs, bigger than your lone existence. It connects you to a grand plotline." — Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

135. "I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. It is an act that can be met with hostility, exclusion, and violence. It can also lead to love, understanding, transcendence, and community." — Janet Mock, Redefining Realness

136. "By now we know that the flower children, the yippies, the gay rights organizers, and the second-wave feminists were all inspired by the voices of the freedom movement. But the ripple is much bigger. In each successive generation, expression has pushed past existing boundaries, arguing that their insistence is more than a matter of style or taste, but rather that it is a matter of freedom." — Imani Perry, South to America

137. "Don’t let anybody, anybody convince you this is the way the world is and therefore must be. It must be the way it ought to be." — Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard

138. "Could it be that we matter?" — Patrisse Khan-Cullors, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

On Change, Hope, and Healing

139. "Change requires intent and effort. It really is that simple." — Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

140. "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, Year of Yes

141. "History has shown that one person's willingness to stand up for what is right can be the spark that ignites far-reaching change." — Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold

142. "There is something radical and beautiful and deeply transformational in bearing witness to public accountability, accountability before a community gathered for the sake of wholeness." — Patrisse Khan-Cullors, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

143. "Healing, as I see it, is not the absence of pain. Rather it is a gradual reduction in the ache. The lessening of that hurt eventually makes room for fond memories to surface." — Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

144. "Whenever you conceptualize social justice struggles, you will always defeat your own purposes if you cannot imagine the people around whom you are struggling as equal partners." — Angela Y. Davis, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

145. "You can't be a part of the solution if you don't recognize how you are a part of the problem." — Elaine Welteroth, More Than Enough

146. "Resentment corrodes the veins of the person who carries it." — Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

147. "Hurt is worse than anger, you know. Anger dwells in the head, then fades. Hurt lingers in the soul." — Daniel Black, Don't Cry for Me

148. "It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity not to teach your child to hate." — James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

149. "I came to love the men and women I worked with: the single mom living on a ravaged block who somehow got all four children through college; the Irish priest who threw open the church doors every evening so that kids had an option other than gangs; the laid-off steelworker who went back to school to become a social worker. Their stories of hardship and their modest victories confirmed for me again and again the basic decency of people... Through them, I resolved the lingering questions of my racial identity. For it turned out there was no single way to be Black; just trying to be a good man was enough." — Barack Obama, A Promised Land

150. "I am American. That means something to me, some common ground with others of this soil, even as the country feels irredeemably racist and maybe not worth saving." — Imani Perry, South to America

151. "I believe my purpose is to bring joy to people, to make them laugh, and to share my story to help them. To show people that no matter what, they matter, and they can succeed. No matter how bad things go, no matter how dark your life is, there is a reason for it. You can find beauty in it, and you can get better. I know, because I’ve done it." — Tiffany Haddish, The Last Black Unicorn

152. "I don’t understand why people work so hard at pointing out our differences; we should be celebrating the things we have in common." — Bernie Mac, Maybe You Never Cry Again

153. "Human beings are more alike than different—damn sure more alike than we like to admit." — Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

154. "We seek harm to none and harmony for all." — Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb

155. "At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought." — Tina Turner, Happiness Becomes You

160. "I don't think we have any alternative other than remaining optimistic. Optimism is an absolute necessity, even if it's only optimism of the will." — Angela Y. Davis, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

161. "My daily challenge to myself is to be part of the solution, to be a joyful warrior in the battle to come." — Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold

162. "Devote a slice of your energies toward making the world suck less every week." — Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes

163. "By honoring each other’s ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds, we become stronger and happier, brightening the cosmic masterpiece of artwork that is our world. Rather than emphasize differences, we should be looking for similarities. Our differences are ultimately superficial, and the best thing to do is celebrate them." — Tina Turner, Happiness Becomes You

164. "Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part. And if we believe in the change we seek, then it is easy to commit to doing all we can, because the responsibility is ours alone to build a better society and a more peaceful world." — John Lewis, Across That Bridge

165. "It may be a while before we find our footing again. The losses will reverberate for years to come. We will get shaken and shaken again. The world will remain both beautiful and broken. The uncertainties aren’t going away. But when equilibrium isn’t possible, we are challenged to evolve." — Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry

166. "There are years that ask questions and years that answer." — Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

On Peace and Love

167. "Love is contraband in Hell, cause love is an acid that eats away bars." — Assata Shakur, Assata

168. "Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace—not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth." — James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

169. "Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have, and you come to us endangered." — Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

170. "The more I wonder, the more I love." — Alice Walker, The Color Purple

171. "To be seen in this life, truly observed without judgment, is what it feels like to be loved." — Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

172. "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, Year of Yes

173. "Living a joyful life, I’ve found, is not about trying to avoid the unavoidable. Joy comes from summoning a strong life force to overcome problems, from the smallest irritation to the biggest disaster." — Tina Turner, Happiness Becomes You

174. "Love is a choice we can make every day." — Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes

175. "Sometimes the message of love, inclusion, and equality needs to be direct and clear." — Billy Porter, Unprotected

176. "We are creatures of love. God gave us a heart. A heart is designed to love. So our natural ability is to love. And part of loving ourselves and those around us is being willing to forgive and be forgiven." — Tabitha Brown, Feeding the Soul