“If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power.”

Seems to me that the institutions that function in this country are clearly racist, and that they’re built upon racism.

Now you know where I got my name.

An organization which claims to be working for the needs of a community – as SNCC does – must work to provide that community with a position of strength from which to make its voice heard. This is the significance of black power beyond the slogan

Our noses are broad, our lips are thick, our hair is nappy-we are black and beautiful!

What a liberal really wants is to bring about change that will not in any way endanger his position.

The masses don’t shed their blood for the benefit of a few individuals.

The first need of a free people is to define their own terms.

I place my own hope for the United States in the growth of belief among the unqualified that they are in fact qualified: they can articulate and be responsible and hold power

Integration is a man’s ability to want to move in there by himself. If someone wants to live in a white neighborhood and he is black, that is his choice. It should be his rights. It is not because white people will not allow him.

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!

The time for running has come to an end. You tell them white folk in Mississippi that all the scared niggers are dead!

The only position for women in SNCC is prone.

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 define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.

Black Power can be clearly defined for those who do not attach the fears of white America to their questions about it.

I knew that I could vote and that that wasn’t a privilege; it was my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived.

The philosophers Camus and Sartre raise the question whether or not a man can condemn himself.

I’ve got a nice collection of paintings – a Basquiat, a black-and-white Warhol that’s like a Rorschach test, and I commissioned Takashi Murakami to do a ten-foot joint for me. It’s almost like the explosion in Hiroshima with his famous skeleton head. There’s a wall above my fireplace reserved for it.

[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself.

Skins may differ, but affection Dwells in white and black the same.

The white man arrogated to himself the right to rule and to be obeyed by the non-white; his mission, he claimed, was to “civilize” Africa. Under this cloak, the Europeans robbed the continent of vast riches and inflicted unimaginable suffering on the African people.

I use charcoal a lot. Partly because it has such a fantastic range but also because it is very easy to erase.

For me, drawing is a lot to do with taking out, with returning to the white of the paper.

The Great Spirit made all things. He gave the white people a home beyond the great waters. He supplied these grounds with game, and gave them to his red children; and he gave them strength and courage to defend them.

Rebirth. I mean by this simply what happens when the child begins to realise the fact that the black does not enter through the white’s front door is not in the same category as the fact that the dead will never come back.