From Frederick Douglass to Maya Angelou, from B. B. King to Aretha Franklin, African American voices have carried truth through sorrow and celebration. Their words name injustice and still reach toward hope. We begin with a reminder from Colin Powell that calls us to stand tall in our own lives: “Have a vision. Be demanding.” These lines invite us to see clearly, act with courage, and remember that our choices echo far beyond a single day.

You are not judged by the heights you have risen, but the depth you have climbed. ~ Frederick Douglass Seeds of Revolution

Water from the white fountain did not taste any better than from the black fountain. ~ B. B. King Esquire, 1/06

The white man’s happiness cannot be purchased by the black man’s misery. ~ Frederick Douglass

When you learn, teach. When you get, give. ~ Maya Angelou

For nobler themes, demand a nobler strain, and purer language on the ethereal plain. ~ Phillis Wheatley

Our strength is that with the total society saying to us, “No, No, No, No,” we continue to move toward our goal. ~ Ralph Ellison

The mind does not take its complexion from the skin. ~ Frederick Douglass

People do not pay much attention to you when you are second best. I wanted to see what it felt like to be number one. ~ Florence Griffith Joyner

Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind. ~ Quincy Jones

What is the best thing about being queen? Just being the queen, that is all. Being the Queen of Soul is a theatrical title. At home, I am the queen of my house, so I am a domestic goddess. ~ Aretha Franklin

All the courage and competitiveness of Jackie Robinson affects me to this day. If I patterned my life after anyone it was him, not because he was the first black baseball player in the majors but because he was a hero. ~ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

It is a dangerous thing to ask why someone else has been given more. It is humbling and healthy to ask why you have been given so much. ~ Condoleezza Rice

After more than three hundred years and much difficult history, we hew to the old racist rule: part black is all black. Fifty percent equals a hundred. There is no in-between. ~ Marie Arana Washington Post, 11/30/08

Innate in all life and all growth is tension. Only in death is there an absence of tension. To cure injustices, you must expose them before the Light of human conscience and the bar of public opinion, regardless of whatever tensions that exposure generates. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.