Margot Lee Shetterly Quotes

I marched back then - I was in a civil-rights musical, Fly Blackbird, and we met Martin Luther King.

We cannot forget that America was built on Africa.

I came into my teens unaware that most Americans, blacks as well as whites, were ignorant of the main facts of Negro history. And so it was the facts of other histories that I found most intriguing. I fell into a U.S. history major by chance late in my second year at Fisk University.

Schools don't teach American history that well, especially a lot of black American history.

There were many African Americans - many, many stories similar to my story.

I don't have an objective overview of Black Sunday.

Well, I'm a daughter of the great migration as, really, the majority of African Americans that you meet in the north and west are products of the great migration. It's that massive. Many of us owe our very existence to the fact that people migrated.

I just think Rosa Parks was overrated. Last time I checked, she got famous for breaking the law.

What we fly today is not an enduring symbol of our heritage, but the fighting flag of those who wanted to preserve a segregated South.

Abraham Africanus the First

Negro President

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA — The Freedom Walkers, arrested May 3 after crossing the Alabama state line, are now in Kilby State Prison, Montgomery, Alabama. All have refused to make bond and intend to remain in jail as their witness for democracy.

The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.

I'd love to talk with Martin Luther King, just to hear his voice up close and be with someone who had such faith. He had such power.

Black history is part of American history, and it should be treated as such.

Blacks have experienced a history of victimization in America, beginning obviously in slavery and then another 100 years of segregation. I grew up in segregation. I know very well what it was about and all of the difficulties it placed on black life, and how we were truly held down before the civil-rights movement.

I have a lot of respect for Martin Luther King. I think he was one of the greatest orators that the country ever produced.

I was born after the Civil Rights Movement.

If you want to understand America, it's slavery.

My mom, Clida, taught my four brothers and me about her father's work to organize black voters in rural Louisiana in the 1950s. We carried her dad's legacy of activism with us. The Civil Rights Movement was present in the daily life of my family in Detroit in the 1970s.

In fifth grade, we did 10 minutes on slavery and 40 minutes on Abraham Lincoln, and in 10th grade you might do 10 minutes on the civil rights era and 40 minutes on Martin Luther King, and that's it.

I've always had sort of an interest in American history, full stop, and especially people who contributed to the civil rights struggle.

I was doing a civil rights musical here in Los Angeles, and we sang at one of the rallies where Dr. Martin Luther King spoke, and I remember the thrill I felt when we were introduced to him. To have him shake your hand was an absolutely unforgettable experience.

My black hero is and always will be Martin Luther King, not just because of the strength of his oratory but because his vision was very much the reality that I'd come to take for granted.

I don't remember when I didn't know about Martin Luther King.