Overcoming Oppression Quotes

You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.

As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.

They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed.

We as African Americans knew that if we wanted to see change, we had to step up to the plate and make that change ourselves. Not everyone comes to that realization in their lives, but thank God Linda Brown's father felt that way.

The people have now come to realize that the only way to deal with the oppressor is to deal on our own terms and this was done.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!

It is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors.

Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an artificial being. Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free.

You cannot imprison an idea. You have to fight it with a better idea.

Despite the great vision, it is only drop by drop that we squeeze the slave out of ourselves.

A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles.

... within every form of oppression lies the seeds of liberation.

Whoever has experienced the power and the unrestrained ability to humiliate another human being automatically loses his own sensations. Tyranny is a habit, it has its own organic life, it develops finally into a disease. The habit can kill and coarsen the very best man or woman to the level of a beast. Blood and power intoxicate ... the return of the human dignity, repentance and regeneration becomes almost impossible.

Strange, is it not, my brothers, how often in America those great watchwords of human energy - 'Be strong!' 'Know thyself!' 'Hitch your wagon to a star!' - how often these die away into dim whispers when we face these seething millions of black men? And yet do they not belong to them? Are they not their heritage as well as yours?

I still get a chill when I sing, 'You Don't Own Me.' I find some new feeling in it every time.

The fact that we elected Obama was a sign that the black struggle inherent in the blues and so much of the music I have loved can triumph.

Yes, it's a man's world, but that's all right because they're making a total mess of it. We're chipping away at their control, taking the parts we want. Some women think it's a difficult task, but it's not.

The reason you write something that is exciting and visceral is to force people to hear what you have to say, especially if you're in any kind of marginalized community where people don't want to listen. You have to come up with tricks to make them listen.

Each time we arrive at a new level in extricating ourselves from economic, social, spiritual domination, we have a moment when we dance in the world of these new experiences, only to find that the music soon stops, the dance ends, and we're struggling once again to save ourselves from being thrown back into those conditions.

The miracle is that some have stepped out of the rags of the Republic's definition to assume the great burden and glory of their humanity and their responsibility for one another. It is an extraordinary achievement to be trapped in the dungeon of color and to dare to shake down its walls and to step out of it leaving the jailkeeper in the rubble.

You're going to have to speak up for yourself - and I learned that after always being, for lack of a better word, crapped on.

We shall never secure emancipation from the tyranny of our oppressor until we have achieved it in our own souls.

Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.

We have defeated Gaddafi on the battlefield; now we must defeat him in our imagination. We must not allow his legacy to corrupt our dream. Let's keep focused on the true prize: unity, democracy, and the rule of law. Let's not seek revenge; that would diminish our future.

We pray against the domestic enemies of the Constitution, against this demon of tyranny who is using the White House occupant. That demonic spirit is oppressing us.