Carter G. Woodson Quotes

I am ready to act, if I can find brave men to help me.

If the Negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto.

The real servant of the people must live among them, think with them, feel for them, and die for them.

We have a wonderful history behind us. … If you are unable to demonstrate to the world that you have this record, the world will say to you, ‘You are not worthy to enjoy the blessings of democracy or anything else’.

The so-called modern education, with all its defects, however, does others so much more good than it does the Negro, because it has been worked out in conformity to the needs of those who have enslaved and oppressed weaker peoples.

Let us banish fear.

Negro banks, as a rule, have failed because the people, taught that their own pioneers in business cannot function in this sphere, withdrew their deposits.

The strongest bank in the United States will last only so long as the people will have sufficient confidence in it to keep their money there.

Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.

The Negroes are facing the alternative of rising in the sphere of production to supply their proportion of the manufacturers and merchants or of going down to the graves of paupers.

In fact, the confidence of the people is worth more than money.

I am a radical.

The oppressor has always indoctrinated the weak with his interpretation of the crimes of the strong.

They still have some money, and they have needs to supply. They must begin immediately to pool their earnings and organize industries to participate in supplying social and economic demands.