“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 (1928- ) "Still I rise," And Still I Rise (1978)

“Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.” Arthur Ashe (1943-1993), Sports Illustrated, July 1991

“If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything . . . that smacks of discrimination or slander.” Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) "Certain Unalienable Rights," What the Negro Wants, edited by Rayford W. Logan (1944)

“You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” Frederick Douglass (1818?-1895) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) Baptist Minister, Civil Rights Activist, 1964 Noble Peace Prize recipient

“In all things that are purely social we [black and white] can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” Booker T Washington-African (1856-1915) American political leader, educator and author.