Ive been put in charge of Black History Month events at a public school. On of the things we are doing is a person+ quote announced in the mornings about historic Black people.
I want to create a list entirely of influential Black leftists and some quotes.
It still needs to be approved by the "moderate" priciple, so try and keep the people and quotes subtle enough that they can be mentioned in a school (yeah Ik, Im still gonna try and get Malcolm X in but i think that might get removed. )
Comrades! please list your favorite badass Black leftists and cool quotes by them , would actually help me get some leftist stuff (even just a tiny bit) into this school.
Thomas Sankara might be able to slip it in with most people not knowing who he is
He was an absolute quote mine. The power level is off the charts. :sankara-salute:
This documentary is pretty solid.
And here's the late Proles doing a podcast about Burkina Faso , includes more info on him naturally.
He who is reluctant to recognize me opposes me.
Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land but from our minds as well.
A government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.
Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.
There is in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained.
We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt complaint, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong - this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty and we must follow it.
Franz Fanon even was a Doctor , like real Doctor Doctor ... nothing suspicious there I say ... must be a good fella ... :fanon:
Here's a list along with some good quotes that I got from some quick googling so I'd double check any of them (some may be a little too radical but you could always try):
- Huey P. Newton
"Laws should be made to serve the people. People should not be made to serve the laws."
"While life will always be filled with sound and fury, it can be more than a tale signifying nothing."
"I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people."
- Fred Hampton
"We have to start learning, and you learn through practice. We have to start making mistakes, and you learn through making mistakes."
"We’re gonna have to do more than talk. We’re gonna have to do more than listen. We’re gonna have to do more than learn. We’re gonna have to start practicing and that’s very hard. We’re gonna have to start getting out there with the people and that’s difficult. Sometimes we think we’re better than the people so it’s gonna take a lot of hard work."
"You have to understand that people have to pay a price for peace. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win."
- Tupac, especially the collection of poems in The Rose That Grew from Concrete
"Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's laws wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. Funny, it seems to by keeping it's dreams; it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared."
"You never know how strong you can be until being strong is the only choice you have left."
- Mandela (idk you're circumstances specifically but you might be able to get away with being a bit more radical with this one)
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
"When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw."
- Assata
yeah on second thought this one might be a tough sell I couldn't really find anything that wasn't not explicitly radical
- Angela Davis
"You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time."
I'll update if I can think of any more
If Malcolm X gets cut then Huey Newton and Fred Hampton are gonna get mega-cut. Mayyybe Hampton would pass but not Newton.
Malcolm X is your limited hangout so that the principal can feel like they did their job here
"The course of history can be changed but not halted."
"Every artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands. The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative."
"When I sang my American folk melodies in Budapest, Prague, Tiflis, Moscow, Oslo, or the Hebrides or on the Spanish front, the people understood and wept or rejoiced with the spirit of the songs. I found that where forces have been the same, whether people weave, build, pick cotton, or dig in the mine, they understand each other in the common language of work, suffering, and protest."
"I am truly happy that I am able to travel from time to time to the USSR the country I love above all. I always have been, I am now and will always be a loyal friend of the Soviet Union."
"The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house."
"Revolution is not a one time event"
Audre Lorde
I know it might seem cliche but there’s a treasure at the Radical MLK.
His statement in the Letter from Birmingham Jail about the white moderate being the movement’s biggest obstacle is sooooo apropos for today.
Was reading his The Strength to Love the other day. Lots of beautiful stuff about overcoming fear, which is the basis of so much of the status quo.
Will have to look when I get a minute away from the kids.
cliché or not, MLKJ is perfect because libs are obsessed with him as a concept, but could use some actual education about what he did/thought.
he had direct quotes critiquing capitalism.
Tons of critique of capitalism.
Was just reading Cornel West’s book in which he recounts speaking with Coretta, who recalled for him her amazement that when they were first introduced he claimed himself to be a socialist. This is in the 1940’s/early 50’s.
His essay on Norman Thomas is very moving. Thought that he instead should have been given the Nobel prize for his humanitarian work as the country’s foremost socialist. Called him the “bravest person he’d ever known.”
Langston Hughes was a comrade who will absolutely slip through undetected. Idk a specific lefty quote for him besides just reading the "Lenin marches around the world" poem - which you likely couldn't get away with.
hes already on my list lol. The quotes themselves dont necessarily need to be leftist. I just want it so when a kid gets interested in any of these people they go and look them up and find out, 'hey that person was a socialist/communist/whatever.'
Your principle almost certainly doesn't know who Franz Fanon and George Jackson are.
"What matters is not to know the world but to change it." - Fanon
"Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it's cowardice." - George Jackson
Du Bois is a big one
Fredrick Douglass if abolitionism is lefty enoughyeah abolitionism is cool and good. unfinished work but good.
Imperialism is a system of exploitation that occurs not only in the brutal form of those who come with guns to conquer territory. Imperialism often occurs in more subtle forms, a loan, food aid, blackmail . We are fighting this system that allows a handful of men on Earth to rule all of humanity.
Thomas Sankara
He also was one of the first to make data visualizations of black americans in order to argue for their right to personhood
Crunched for time, he was unable to get it printed before he was due to present at the Paris expo, so he painted and penciled them by hand
Paul Stevenson was basically the UK's Rosa Parks.
"Racism eats in our society, it holds sway over people, particularly people in society poverty. We have a duty to our children, our grandchildren to decide what kind of society we are going to live by."
Definitely want to echo Fred Hampton, but I'll also add 2 names I haven't seen yet: Angela Davis and Cornel West. Sorry I don't have quotes from them atm but they're out there.
already added Angela, Cornel West is a good choice.
Fred Hampton: "If you dare to struggle, you dare to win. "
It's a very lib-friendly line in a not very lib-friendly passage.
