Carter G. Woodson

“And thus goes segregation which is the most far-reaching development in the history of the Negro since the enslavement of the race.”

“In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them.”

“We do not show the Negro how to overcome segregation, but we teach him how to accept it as final and just.”

“The Negroes are facing the alternative of rising in the sphere of production to supply their proportion of the manufacturers and merchants or of going down to the graves of paupers.”

“The large majority of the Negroes who have put on the finishing touches of our best colleges are all but worthless in the development of their people.”

“Philosophers have long conceded, however, that every man has two educators: 'that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself. Of the two kinds the latter is by far the more desirable. Indeed all that is most worthy in man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is that which constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves.”

“If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.”

“If Liberia has failed, then, it is no evidence of the failure of the Negro in government. It is merely evidence of the failure of slavery.”

“History shows that it does not matter who is in power or what revolutionary forces take over the government, those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they had in the beginning.”

“If the Negroes are to remain forever removed from the producing atmosphere, and the present discrimination continues, there will be nothing left for them to do.”

“If the Negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto.”

“The mere imparting of information is not education.”

“In fact, the confidence of the people is worth more than money.”

“In the long run, there is not much discrimination against superior talent.”

“I am a radical.”

“The different ness of races, moreover, is no evidence of superiority or of inferiority. This merely indicates that each race has certain gifts which the others do not possess.”

“Negro banks, as a rule, have failed because the people, taught that their own pioneers in business cannot function in this sphere, withdrew their deposits.”

“Negroes who have been so long inconvenienced and denied opportunities for development are naturally afraid of anything that sounds like discrimination.”

“Let us banish fear. We have been in this mental state for three centuries. I am a radical. I am ready to act, if I can find brave men to help me.”

“This crusade is much more important than the anti- lynching movement, because there would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom.”