“Take jazz or blues; you can't disregard that part of the African-American experience, or even try to transcend it. They are affirmations and celebrations of the value and worth of the African-American spirit. And young people would do well to understand them as the roots of today's rap, rather than some antique to be tossed away.”
August Wilson
“The African-American experience is one of the most important threads in the American tapestry.”
Bill Frist
“I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”
Muhammad Ali
“If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.”
Malcolm X
“To be a Negro in America is to hope against hope.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“You have a young African-American taking some food from a grocery store after their home was ruined by a flood and it's called looting. A white person is taking food from a grocery store and it's called finding bread and soda.”
Jesse Jackson
“African-American history is not something that can be put on display solely during the month of February and then put in a box for storage until the following February. [African-American history] is an integral part of American history and the history of African peoples is an integral part of world history.”
Robert Hall
