Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise. – Maya Angelou, "Still I Rise," And Still I Rise

When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. – Harriet Tubman, on her first escape from slavery, 1845

Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril. – William Lloyd Garrison

No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. – Booker T. Washington

The problem with hatred and violence is that they intensity the fears of the white majority, and leave them less ashamed of their prejudices toward Negroes. – Martin Luther King,Jr.