In 1926,, Black History Week was originated by Carter G. Woodson to be celebrated in the month of February, when we especially honor the many excellent contributions that Black Americans have made to the nation in Traditional Culture, Religion, Entertainment, Government, Sports, the Arts, the Military, and many other arenas. Black History Week eventually became Black History Month.
The following are a collection of thought-provoking quotes by some notable men and women of the the African American community, for our contemplation and edification.
“If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die” Maya Angelou
“A wise person speaks carefully with truth, for every word that passes between one’s teeth is meant for something.” Molifi Kete Asante
“People see God every day. They just don’t recognize Him.” Pearl Bailey
“There are some people, that if they don’t know, you can’t tell them.” Louis Armstrong
“I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hate so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with the pain.” James Baldwin
“You lose a lot of time hating people. Marian Anderson
“Of all the needs (there is none imaginary) a lonely child has the one that must be staisfied if there is going to be hope. And a hope of wholeness is the unshaken need for an unshakable God.”__Maya Angelou
“I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence is attributed to God’s will. But as human beings become more affluent…ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed.” Maya Angelou
“You are either a part of the solution or a part of the problem.”
Eldridge Cleaver
“To defend oneself against fear is simply to insure that one will, one day, be conquered by it; fear must be faced.” Maya Angelou
“Lord, make me so uncomfortable that I will do the very thing I fear.”
Tawanna Brawely
“Most fear stems from sin. To limit one’s sins assuredly limits one’s fears, thereby bringing more peace to one’s spirit.”
Tawanna Brawley
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” Bill Cosby
“I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for, at one time, being ashamed.” Ralph Ellison
“Testimony is an integral part of Black Religious tradition. It is the occasion where the believer stands before the Community of faith in order to give an account of the hope that is in him.”James Cone
“There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is this moment. The time is always NOW.” James Baldwin
“It appears that my worst fears have been realized when we have made progress in everything, yet nothing has changed.” Derrick Bell
“Art hurts. Art urges voyages, only it is easier to stay at home.”
Gwendolyn Brooks
“Pride, like humility is destroyed by one’s insistance that he possess it.”
Kenneth B. Clarke
“There’s time enough, but none to spare.” Charles W. Chestnutt
“Tell me whom you love and I’ll tell you who you are.”
Louisiana Creole Proverb
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
thedailylily.com 
After seeing and hearing Maya Angelou at Former President Bill Clinton’s inauguration(s), I have so appreciated the work of Maya. She has such an amazing poet’s gift for language and emotion of anguish and love. Some of my favorites “I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, And Still I Rise, On the Pulse of Morning, and Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now, among many of her poems that I find easy to love.
I read an excerpt from a short bio of Maya’s, speaking of she and her brother while living with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, “Their early world revolved around this remarkable woman and the store she ran for the black community-where white people were as strange as aliens from another planet.”
Yet today Maya is known and loved by all that have had the opportunity to experience the emotion of her work as the superb artist she is. Artist/Poet is only the beginning of her many titles and accomplishments.
Thanks MG for the compilation of quotes for us to think on. As I reflected on the one by Pearl Bailey, “People see God everyday. They just don’t recognize Him”, I was reminded of a lesson From Sara’s book “The Dance of Healing”. In it there was a scripture reading from Genesis 28 about Jacob who many years ago discovered what Pearl Bailey observed. He said “Truly Yahweh (a name for God)was in this place and I never knew it”.
As the scripture form Matt 1:14 says “Though seeing, they do not see”. Really makes one think.
I loved all of these quotes of wisdom and insight. One of the ones I liked was Louis Armstrong’s, “…..if they don’t know, you can’t tell them.” To which I’d like to add, and some people, even if they DO know and aren’t doing right, YOU CAN’T TELL THEM!
And the Creole Proverb, “Tell me whom you love and I’ll tell you who you are” is real thought-provoking to us who profess to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. Can other people tell by “who we are” that we are LOVERS of GOD? Jesus said that they would know that we are Christians by our love. DOES my “WHO” show HIM? Very challenging.
The following quote will put a little spin on your head.
“Most fear stems from sin. To limit one’s sins assuredly limits one’s fears, thereby bringing more peace to one’s spirit.”
Tawanna Brawley
Thank you MG for compiling these beautiful and wise sayings. I was touched by the following: Of all the needs (there is none imaginary) a lonely child has the one that must be satisfied if there is going to be hope. And a hope of wholeness is the unshaken need for an unshakable God.”__Maya Angelou
Children today are faced with all kinds of living arrangements. Many do not and have not heard of God. Without a knowing of God their is a void in their lives that only God can fill. I remember in India there was a man at one of the hotels and he said that he wanted to come to America because there he would be happy. Since he came to know God due to our visit, he did not need to come to America, because he now had a hope in God and that was sufficient to meet his needs. He knew that God is a God of Hope. He began to understand that God was unshakable, and he could cling to Him. Like this man, when we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, we will find that He is unshaken by our problems. He is in control, and he stands by His children when all others abandon ship.
Yes, Rena, I do well remember that man and the release of his pain of not having a father, after Sara had preached the “Fatherhood” of the Heavenly Father, to that vast Indian audience and his joy when he then understood that the FATHERHOOD of Jesus’ Father and Jesus’ everlasting Fatherhood would always be with him, in India, WHEREVER and FOREVER.
As you said, when we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and the Heavenly Father, it reminds me of the song that Needles taught us at the Summer Retreat,,,”GOD IS IN CONTROL”. (Twila Paris).
MG These are very good thought provoking sayings. Good for all of us in everyday living.