Officially recognized as Black History Month in 1976, February offers a chance to recognize the accomplishments of Black Americans in every era of history. The yearly observance provides an opportunity to honor and reflect upon meaningful events and contributions—from the powerful activism of Rosa Parks and the inspiring words of Maya Angelou to the impactful leadership of famous changemakers like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Discover Black History Month quotes that offer wisdom, insight and inspiration.
At SUCCESS®, we want to honor individuals like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass who paved the way toward equality—in addition to those who actively challenge injustice today. We’re sharing our appreciation for the people who changed history and those who continue to empower everyone around them.
Celebrate Black History Month with these 61 famous quotes from Black Americans that touch on inspiration, success, and resilience—in addition to truth, justice, courage and freedom.
Black History Month Quotes to Inspire & Educate
Words are powerful. They can inspire and direct us toward positive change in all aspects of our lives. From highlighting the power of education to emphasizing the importance of our thoughts and actions, these statements have incredible wisdom. We can all draw inspiration from the following Black History Month quotes.
- “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions.” —Carter G. Woodson
- “Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world… ” —Nelson Mandela
- “If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.” —Toni Morrison
- “If you know [from] whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.” —James Baldwin
- “Purpose is an essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history.” —Chadwick Boseman
- “All that you touch, / You Change. / All that you Change, / Changes you. ” —Octavia E. Butler
- “But when I lost my son, what was reiterated for me — because the person that took my son’s life looked exactly like him — I had an opportunity to really think about my work, and what came to mind is that good and evil comes in all shades and colors. And that evil is not prejudiced, that evil just needs an opportunity to work through you. It made me realize that I had a lot more work to do that all of us, no matter what we look like, we all have a common enemy. And that is evil. If we don’t understand that and come together, then evil will win. —Ruby Bridges
Related: Share Your Experiences to Inspire Growth in Others—and in Yourself
Famous Black History Quotes About Success
As human beings, we all strive for success. Many Black thought leaders have made simple yet profound statements that can light your path toward success. Let these famous Black history quotes and statements from notable Black leaders inspire you and propel you toward being the best version of yourself.
- “It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about where you get yourself in the end. There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.” —Michelle Obama
- “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough..” —Oprah Winfrey
- “Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” —Mae Jemison, M.D.
- “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.” —Frederick Douglass
- “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” —Booker T. Washington, “The Outlook”
- “We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.” —Jesse Owen, Jesse: The Man Who Outran Hitler
- “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” —Muhammad Ali
- “Success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.” —Michelle Obama
- “I tell people to look at me and understand that everybody first told me that I couldn’t be a 6-foot, 9-inch point guard, and I proved them wrong. Then they told me I couldn’t be a businessman and make money in urban America, and I proved them wrong. And they thought I couldn’t win all these championships, and I proved them wrong there as well.” —Magic Johnson
- “Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen.” —Shonda Rhimes
Related: 10 Obstacles Every Startup Must Overcome to Be Successful
Empowering Quotes About Resilience For Black History Month
Resilience has always been the hallmark of the Black experience. The following statements from iconic Black figures celebrate the unwavering spirit of a demographic of people who have had to overcome countless obstacles to be where they are today.
- “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” —John Lewis
- “Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” —Ella Fitzgerald
- “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” —Michael Jordan
- “I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger.” —Serena Williams
- “Freedom is never granted: It is won. Justice is never given: It is exacted.” —A. Philip Randolph
- “Hold fast to dreams / For if dreams die / Life is a broken-winged bird / That cannot fly. / Hold fast to dreams / For when dreams go / Life is a barren field / Frozen with snow.” —Langston Hughes, Dreams
- “Ours is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year… Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.” —John Lewis
- “We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.” —Maya Angelou
- “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” —Shirley Chisholm
- “Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, / I am the dream and the hope of the slave. / I rise / I rise / I rise.” —Maya Angelou
Related: 60 Resilience Quotes That Will Give You Strength
Inspirational Quotes From Black Leaders On Truth & Justice
Truth and justice are always at the heart of all forms of the struggle for equality. With that in mind, these 10 quotes from prominent Black leaders can offer insight into these ideals.
- “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
- “If you haven’t got it, you can’t show it. If you have got it, you can’t hide it.” —Zora Neale Hurston
- “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” —Ida B. Wells
- “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.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
- “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” —Desmond Tutu
- “Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.” —W.E.B. Du Bois
- “I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can’t sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, ‘This is not right.” —Claudette Colvin
- “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
- “We will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’” —Martin Luther King Jr., inspired by Amos 5:24
Quotes On Courage to Honor Black History Month
Courage was one of the key traits that defined the Civil Rights movement. Without it, the freedom, liberty and human rights we enjoy today wouldn’t have seen the light of day. Black thought leaders from then and now have highlighted the importance of courage in accomplishing difficult goals, as shown in the following quotes.
- “History has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.” —Michelle Obama
- “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have so little, who’ve been told that they cannot have what they dream, that they cannot be what they imagine. Yes, they can.” —Barack Obama
- “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” —Jackie Robinson
- “So many people identified with and related to “Respect.” It was the need of a nation, the need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher — everyone wanted respect.” —Aretha Franklin
- “Usually, when people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.” —Malcolm X
- “History, despite its wrenching pain, / Cannot be unlived, but if faced/ With courage, need not be lived again.” —Maya Angelou
- “The secret of life is to have no fear; it’s the only way to function.” —Stokely Carmichael
- “Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it.” —Barrack Obama
- “There is always light, / if only we’re brave enough to see it. / If only we’re brave enough to be it.” —Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”
Black History Month Quotes On Freedom
The fight for freedom is where it all started for the Black struggle, and that is the meaning of a fundamental right. Most of the following Black inspirational quotes capture the essence of that struggle and define the meaning and pursuit of freedom.
- “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained. Nor is anyone of you.” —Audre Lorde
- “Only in a free society could right triumph in difficult times, and could civilization record its magnificent advancement. In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.” —Thurgood Marshall
- “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” —Nelson Mandela
- “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” —W.E.B. Du Bois
- “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” —Malcolm X
- “Freedom has never been free.” —Medgar Evers
- “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” —Fannie Lou Hamer
- “We forgot what we knew daily in the South: freedom is not given, it is won.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
- “…without dignity, there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence, there are no free men.” —Patrice Lumumba
- “You get freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get your freedom. You’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it.”—Malcolm X
Words to Inspire Change Beyond Black History Month
Each of these famous Black quotes offers a glimpse into the heart of Black history in America and a few other parts of the world. They cut across generations and diverse experiences but depict the same things—the enduring power of resilience, the unwavering pursuit of justice and the indomitable spirit of inspirational people. These powerful quotes from Black leaders can motivate, empower and inspire change. Don’t just read these words; live by them to ensure we live in a fair, just and free world.
This article was published in February 2022 and has been updated. Photo by SeventyFour/Shutterstock
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