Come back every Monday in the month of February to hear about 7 more Black Leaders!
"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even." - Muhammad Ali, three-time World Heavyweight Boxing Champion and Activist
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin, novelist, essayist and activist
”I want history to remember me not just as the first black woman to be elected to Congress, not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself.” – Shirley Chisholm
“The only way to reduce ugliness in the world is to reduce it in yourself,” - Bayard Rustin, Civil Rights activist and protest organizer
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou, Poet, Civil Rights activist
“Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don't yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it's actually going to be possible.” - Angela Y. Davis, Professor, Activist
"You never completely have your rights, one person, until you all have your rights." - Marsha P. John, trans-woman, LGBTQ+ activist
"I've always believed that I could do whatever I set my mind to do." - Alice Coachman, first Black woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics
"Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination." - Mae Jemison, the first Black woman Astronaut
“I hope this achievement serves as inspiration to black students coming up behind me.” - Nicholas Johnson, Princeton's first Black Valedectorian
"My message today is to every Black, Brown, immigrant, queer, and trans person, and to every person locked out of opportunities to thrive because of oppressive systems; I’m here to serve you. To every person who knows what it’s like to give a loved one that “just make it home safely baby” talk; I love you."- Cori Bush, the first Black woman elected to represent Missouri in Congress
"Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on." - Thurgood Marshall, the first Black US Supreme Court justice
"I don’t listen to what art critics say. I don’t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is." - Jean-Michel Basquiat, renowned artist and painter
"It's important with all of the messages that might tell you otherwise that you have that in yourself to say that 'I am beautiful. I am smart and I'm amazing." - Laverne Cox, actress and LGBTQ+ activist
“Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.” - Ta-Nehisi Coates, renowned author and journalist
“Education, if it means anything, should not take people away from the land, but instill in them even more respect for it, because educated people are in a position to understand what is being lost. The future of the planet concerns all of us, and all of us should do what we can to protect it. As I told the foresters, and the women, you don't need a diploma to plant a tree.” - Wangari Maathai, environmental activist and first African women to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
"If I'm remembered for having done a few good things, and if my presence here has sparked some good energies, that's plenty." - Sidney Poitier, first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor
“While we might feel small, separate, and all alone, our people have never been more tightly tethered. The question’s not if we will weather this unknown, but how we will weather the unknown together.”- Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate
“I hope the message is that Black men, and young African Americans in general, belong at these universities. That they can be from Mississippi. And to not be deterred from applying to [schools like] Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford. That they can belong in these spaces. And not only can they belong, but they can thrive.” - Noah Harris, first Black student-body president at Harvard
“You can and should set your own limits and clearly articulate them. This takes courage, but it is also liberating and empowering, and often earns you new respect.” - Rosalind Brewer, only Black woman to currently lead a Fortune 500 company
“My whole life I've been fighting, trying to improve conditions for black people. that's what I will continue to do, even if they never stand up for me.” — Andrea Jenkins, first openly trans-woman to hold public office