Inspirational Quotes for Black History Month

From the mouths of the men and women who experienced slavery, emancipation, segregation, and have continued the struggle in the face of racism come words of encouragement, wisdom, and faith.

Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.
--Coretta Scott King

Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.
--Coretta Scott King

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

--Martin Luther King, Jr

Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.
--George Washington Carver

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
--Bill Cosby

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.

--W.E.B. Du Bois

A little less complaint and whining, and a little more dogged work and manly striving, would do us more credit than a thousand civil rights bills.

--W.E.B. Du Bois

I am where I am because of the bridges that I crossed. Sojourner Truth was a bridge. Harriet Tubman was a bridge. Ida B. Wells was a bridge. Madame C. J. Walker was a bridge. Fannie Lou Hamer was a bridge.

--Oprah Winfrey

I have observed this in my experience of slavery, that whenever my condition was improved, instead of increasing my contentment; it only increased my desire to be free, and set me thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have found that to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one.

--Frederick Douglas

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sources:

Brainy Quote

The Other Page; Quotations

Thinkexists