Ive been put in charge of Black History Month events at a public school. On of the things we are doing is a person+ quote announced in the mornings about historic Black people.
I want to create a list entirely of influential Black leftists and some quotes.
It still needs to be approved by the “moderate” priciple, so try and keep the people and quotes subtle enough that they can be mentioned in a school (yeah Ik, Im still gonna try and get Malcolm X in but i think that might get removed. )
Comrades! please list your favorite badass Black leftists and cool quotes by them , would actually help me get some leftist stuff (even just a tiny bit) into this school.
Thomas Sankara might be able to slip it in with most people not knowing who he is
He was an absolute quote mine. The power level is off the charts. :sankara-salute:
This documentary is pretty solid.
And here’s the late Proles doing a podcast about Burkina Faso , includes more info on him naturally.
He who is reluctant to recognize me opposes me.
Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land but from our minds as well.
A government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.
Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.
There is in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained.
We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt complaint, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong - this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty and we must follow it.
Here’s a list along with some good quotes that I got from some quick googling so I’d double check any of them (some may be a little too radical but you could always try):
- Huey P. Newton
“Laws should be made to serve the people. People should not be made to serve the laws.”
“While life will always be filled with sound and fury, it can be more than a tale signifying nothing.”
“I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people.”
- Fred Hampton
“We have to start learning, and you learn through practice. We have to start making mistakes, and you learn through making mistakes.”
“We’re gonna have to do more than talk. We’re gonna have to do more than listen. We’re gonna have to do more than learn. We’re gonna have to start practicing and that’s very hard. We’re gonna have to start getting out there with the people and that’s difficult. Sometimes we think we’re better than the people so it’s gonna take a lot of hard work.”
“You have to understand that people have to pay a price for peace. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win.”
- Tupac, especially the collection of poems in The Rose That Grew from Concrete
“Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature’s laws wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. Funny, it seems to by keeping it’s dreams; it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.”
“You never know how strong you can be until being strong is the only choice you have left.”
- Mandela (idk you’re circumstances specifically but you might be able to get away with being a bit more radical with this one)
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”
- Assata
yeah on second thought this one might be a tough sell I couldn’t really find anything that wasn’t not explicitly radical
- Angela Davis
“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
I’ll update if I can think of any more
If Malcolm X gets cut then Huey Newton and Fred Hampton are gonna get mega-cut. Mayyybe Hampton would pass but not Newton.
Malcolm X is your limited hangout so that the principal can feel like they did their job here
“The course of history can be changed but not halted.”
“Every artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands. The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”
“When I sang my American folk melodies in Budapest, Prague, Tiflis, Moscow, Oslo, or the Hebrides or on the Spanish front, the people understood and wept or rejoiced with the spirit of the songs. I found that where forces have been the same, whether people weave, build, pick cotton, or dig in the mine, they understand each other in the common language of work, suffering, and protest.”
“I am truly happy that I am able to travel from time to time to the USSR the country I love above all. I always have been, I am now and will always be a loyal friend of the Soviet Union.”
“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
“Revolution is not a one time event”
Audre Lorde
