“The mind does not take its complexion from the skin.”

The soul that is within me no man can degrade.

One and God make a majority.

The ballot is the only safety.

A slave is someone who sits down, and waits for someone to free them.

The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle.

I will give Mr. Freeland the credit of being the best master I ever had, till I became my own master.

A man, at times, gets something for nothing, but it will, in his hands, amount to nothing.

I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity.

The man who is right is a majority. He who has God and conscience on his side, has a majority against the universe.

No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

Liberty for all; chains for none.

Without a struggle, there can be no progress.

I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.

Be not discouraged. There is a future for you. The resistance encountered now predicates hope.

Nothing is ever black and white but I’m sick and tired of all the grey area.

I think every group of black guys should have at least one white guy in it.

Optimist – A proponent of the doctrine that black is white.

To describe something as being black and white means it is clearly defined. Yet when your ethnicity is black and white, the dichotomy is not that clear. In fact, it creates a grey area.

I grew up in L.A. in a school that was diverse, but it was not really integrated, so I didn’t ever fully fit in with the black girls or the white girls or the Latina girls.

You go to school, you study about the Germans and the French, but not about your own race. I hope the time will come when you study black history too.

Throwing on a black dress with black tights, cute booties, a great coat and throw a scarf over it. I think simple accessories and, if you want to make a pop, a great red lip.

You know, I’ve never believed, in anything, that you had to have role models who looked like you to do something. If I’d been waiting for a black, female, soviet specialist role model, I’d be still waiting.