Not only have we paid the price with our names in ink, but we have also paid in blood. And they can't say that black people can't be intelligent, because going back to Africa, in Guinea, there are almost 4 million people there and what he, President [Sekou] Toure, is doing to educate the people: as long as the French people had it they weren't doing a thing that is being done now.

When I liberate others, I liberate myself.

If the white man gives you anything - just remember when he gets ready he will take it right back. We have to take for ourselves.

I got pictures of us and they would draw big red rings around us and tell what they thought of us. I got a letter said, "I have been shot three times throught the heart. I hope I see your second act." But this white man who wants to stay white, and to think for the Negro, he is not only destroying the Negro, he is destroying himself, because a house divided against itself cannot stand and that same thing applies to America.

You don't have to like everybody, but you have to love everybody.

A black woman's body was never hers alone.

When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don't speak out ain't nobody going to speak out for you.