A biography for H. Rap Brownhasn’t been written yet.
“In terms of the revolution, I believe that the revolution will be a revolution of dispossessed people in this country: that's the Mexican American, the Puerto Rican American, the American Indian, and black people.”
“To be successful in struggle requires remembrance of the Creator and the doing of good deeds. This is important because successful struggle demands that there be a kind of social consciousness.”
“I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.”
“We talking about revolution because that's the era that you're caught in.”
“There's no such thing as second class citizenship. That's like telling me you can be a little bit pregnant.”
“Attack those concepts such as 'third world.' Think about it. If we look at it in terms of numbers, then people of color are the majority in this world. We should be the 'first world.'”
“The poverty program was not designed to eliminate poverty.”
“But black people fall for that same argument, and they go around talking about law breakers. We did not make the laws in this country. We are neither morally nor legally confined to those laws. Those laws that keep them up, keep us down.”
“They cannot divide us by saying that you're middle class or you're lower class.”
“Black people must address itself to the causes of poverty. That's oppression in this country.”
“And understand: class differences will not save you.”
“When you understand your obligations to God then you can understand your obligations to society.”
“Everybody in the black community must organize, and then we decide whether we will have alliance with other people or not, but not until we are organized.”
“I seek truth over a lie; I seek justice over injustice; I seek righteousness over the rewards of evildoers, and I love Allah more than I love the state.”
“We happen to be the vanguard of that revolutionary struggle because we are the most dispossessed.”
“There has to be a social commitment, a social consciousness that joins men together. On the basis of their coming together, they do not transgress against themselves and they do not transgress against others.”
“You see, the poverty program for the last five years have been buy-off programs.”
“My name is Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, the former H. Rap Brown. I am a devoted servant of Allah, and an unwavering devotee to His cause. For more than 30 years, I have been tormented and persecuted by my enemies for reasons of race and belief.”
“Revolution comes when human beings set out to correct decadent institutions.”
“So black people all across this country are uniting. They must unite, and they must organize themselves.”