There is a kind of strength that is almost frightening in black women. It's as if a steel rod runs right through the head down to ...the feet.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really impor...tant to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn't need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder--in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Strictly speaking, one cannot legislate love, but what one can do is legislate fairness and justice. If legislation does not prohi...bit our living side by side, sooner or later your child will fall on the pavement and I'll be the one to pick her up. Or one of my children will not be able to get into the house and you'll have to say, "Stop here until your mom comes here." Legislation affords us the chance to see if we might love each other.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
...there is a difference between being convinced and being stubborn. I'm not certain what the difference is, but I do know that if... you butt your head against a stone wall long enough, at some point you realize the wall is stone and that your head is flesh and blood.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill... of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We had won. Pimps got out of their polished cars and walked the streets of San Francisco only a little uneasy at the unusual exerc...ise. Gamblers, ignoring their sensitive fingers, shook hands with shoeshine boys.... Beauticians spoke to the shipyard workers, who in turn spoke to the easy ladies.... I thought if war did not include killing, I'd like to see one every year. Something like a festival.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Stories of law violations are weighed on a different set of scales in the Black mind than in the white. Petty crimes embarrass the... community and many people wistfully wonder why Negroes don't rob more banks, embezzle more funds and employ graft in the unions.... This ... appeals particularly to one who is unable to compete legally with his fellow citizens.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »