These past fews days with the recent back to back murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille by police officers both of which were caught on camera and now the shootings of innocent police officers in Dallas which also have resulted in five deaths and several others injured have drained and disturbed me. As I continue to hear and see voices on social media and in the news about what we should be doing or what we should be feeling, I decided to turn to past voices and one recent voice for some inspiration. Here are 11 powerful quotes from amazing black leaders that everyone can learn from.
1. "You have to learn to get up from the table when love is no longer being served" -Nina Simone
2. "We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies". -Martin Luther King Jr.
3."When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." - Audre Lorde
4. "I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word". - Martin Luther King, Jr.
5. "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." - Frederick Douglass
6. "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." -Malcolm X
7. "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe". -Fredrick Douglass
8.“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” -Coretta Scott King
9. "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly." -Langston Hughes
10. "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor". -Desmond Tutu
11. "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." - President Barack Obama
There is no reason for us not to come together and make a change. History will only continue to repeat itself until we take non-violent actions and say enough is enough. Decades of oppression and mistrust have led us to this point and now is the time to make it a turning point. We cannot be silent and we cannot ignored. We must find healing, freedom, justice and peace.
