Welcome to our collection of inspiring African-American quotes! Throughout history, African-Americans have made profound contributions to society, from civil rights leaders who fought for equality to artists, writers, musicians, and athletes who have left an indelible mark on our culture. This page celebrates the wisdom, resilience, and creativity of African-Americans through a curated selection of quotes that encapsulate their experiences, struggles, and triumphs. Whether you’re looking for quotes to share on social media, use in a presentation, or simply to find inspiration, you’ll find a diverse range of powerful and thought-provoking quotes below. Feel free to copy them, incorporate them into images, or enhance them with stylish fonts to amplify their impact. Explore these meaningful quotes and let the words of African-American leaders and influencers inspire you.
I wanted the young African-American girls also on the bus to know that they had a right to be there, because they had paid their fare just like the white passengers. Claudette Colvin
I was always drawn to gospel music and the roots of African-American music. It’s the foundation of rock and roll. Hozier
A large percentage of my father’s patients were African-American. Greg Iles
There’s this little box that African-American actors have to work in, in the first place, and I was able to rise above that box. I could have done a bunch of movies where I stayed as the Axel Foley or Reggie Hammond persona. But I didn’t want to be doing the same thing all the time. Every now and then, you crash and burn, but that’s part of it. Eddie Murphy
My mom was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School, in 1946. She had leadership roles in the law, in government and the corporate world. She was a great role model in that she felt anything was possible. John W. Rogers, Jr.
My father is German; my mother is African-American. Growing up, I visited my grandparents in Berlin a lot. I would not see any other person of color for three weeks. People would stare. They would say things like, ‘Oh, you look like chocolate – I want to eat you up!’ Zazie Beetz
I was taught from a young age that many people would treat me as a second-class citizen because I was African-American and because I was female. Queen Latifah
The acceptance of the facts of African-American history and the African-American historian as a legitimate part of the academic community did not come easily. Slavery ended and left its false images of black people intact. John Henrik Clarke
The African-American experience is one of the most important threads in the American tapestry. Bill Frist
When I did ‘Baby Got Back,’ that was just a reflection of the African-American community. We’ve always liked curves, and a lot of people misunderstood it because let’s face it: 20 years prior to ‘Baby Got Back,’ the only images you saw of a black woman on television were she was probably 300 pounds and cleaning the house with a rag on her head. Sir Mix-a-Lot
If you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him. You take a look! Mitt Romney
African-American women account for 67 percent of all newly diagnosed female AIDS cases. Elijah Cummings
We’re the curator for the African-American experience for the past, present and future. That’s my job. Linda Johnson Rice
Considering the popularity of soaps with the African-American audience, it’s grotesque that the entertainment industry, for all its vaunted liberalism, is lagging so far behind social changes in the United States. And why has there never been an all-black daytime network soap? It would probably blow the white soaps off the map. Camille Paglia
I think that we, as the African-American men in hip-hop, we have a greater responsibly because we have the ears of so many millions of our young people. And they listenin’. Steve Harvey
The Jewish culture has a wonderful thing about education. It has a great thing about family; it has a great thing about unity, hard work, dedication. I would like to say the African-American community should emulate that. Jim Brown
I come from an African-American family that is predominantly Muslim. I have had to covertly operate in parts of the Middle East and Africa. I’ve lived a Muslim life and prayed in Mosques, Husseiniyahs, and shrines where needed. One must respect Islam to understand Islam. I’ve read the Quran through and through a half dozen times. Malcolm Nance
I’d been taught from an early age that I was in the ‘other’ category on the standardized tests. You know, I had to go down the checklist – Caucasian, African-American, Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, and then, you know, at the bottom is other. So, you know, very early on I was taught, in a way, that I was somehow this anomaly. Jordan Peele
Anyone who watches a lot of television, or listens to pop music, is familiar with a certain vision of America. If not exactly colorblind, this America is one in which different races easily interact, in which a white person might have an Asian boss, Hispanic stepson, or African-American frenemy. Wesley Morris
I think that whenever there’s a good script we try to make that happen, but it’s all based off of a good story, a good script, but I don’t believe you should do it just because it’s African-American. Babyface
I got my dog back, in African-American language, your dog means your passion, your fire. Deion Sanders
There’s a whole lot more to the African-American community than entertainment and sports. J. C. Watts
I’ve never understood people who say they’re not a practicing Jew. You never hear a black guy say he’s not a practicing African-American. What does it even mean? Gilbert Gottfried
Most of all, I dislike this idea nowadays that if you’re a black person in America, then you must be called African-American. Listen, I’ve visited Africa, and I’ve got news for everyone: I’m not an African. Whoopi Goldberg
I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence. Maya Angelou
I think a lot of African-American kids don’t have fathers to teach them how to dress, so you end up being taught by pictures in magazine and movies. You see cowboys, Indians, old Hollywood films, Cary Grant. It has an effect on you. Andre Benjamin
In the closing years of the nineteenth century, African-American historians began to look at their people’s history from their vantage point and their point of view. John Henrik Clarke
I think the ’90s is the reason why I recently had to find natural haircare products to allow my hair to grow. That was a time where they were processing your hair, and it was a time when African-American women wanted that straight hair. Drew Sidora
What basketball expresses is what jazz expresses. Certain cultural predispositions to make art. All African-American art has a substratum, or baseline, of improvisation and spontaneity. You find that in both basketball and jazz. John Edgar Wideman
My first novel, ‘Leaving Atlanta,’ took at look at my hometown in the late 1970s, when the city was terrorized by a serial murderer that left at least 29 African-American children dead. Tayari Jones
I think the bottom of the totem pole is African-American women, or women of colour. I think they get the least opportunities in Hollywood. Denzel Washington
Forgiveness is a big part of – especially post-civil rights movement – is a big part of African-American Christianity, and I wasn’t raised within the Christian church; I wasn’t raised within any church. Ta-Nehisi Coates
I am an American. Black. Conservative. I don’t use African-American, because I’m American, I’m black and I’m conservative. I don’t like people trying to label me. African- American is socially acceptable for some people, but I am not some people. Herman Cain
I think there’s a lot of things that occur within the African-American community, that we would prefer to stay within the African-American community – that we get a little nervous when you start having scenes or dialogue that we know is going to be viewed and heard on a national or global scale. Gabrielle Union
The simple truth is that balding African-American men look cool when they shave their heads, whereas balding white men look like giant thumbs. Dave Barry
The history of African-American repression in this country rose from government-sanctioned racism. Jim Crow laws were a product of bigoted state and local governments. Rand Paul
There are so many people that don’t come in contact with black men. Whether they live in a homogeneous area that’s mostly white or whether they live in places where they don’t have to come in contact with them. So what kind of contact do they have with African-American males? They have the media, and that’s it. Ryan Coogler
There are so few guys who do action and do it well. Even fewer who are African-American. Even fewer who have classical-theater training. So a cat like me coming in, I’m bringing all of that to an action movie. Wesley Snipes
I grew up upper-class. Private school. My dad had a Jaguar. We’re African-American, and we work together as a family, so people assume we’re like the Jacksons. But I didn’t have parents using me to get out of a bad situation. Beyonce Knowles
For generations, the Jewish and African-American communities have stood together, helping each other overcome their greatest challenges and triumph in the face of sweeping discrimination, all while securing a brighter future for all of our children. Lee Zeldin
Fairness and equality means that what you are never limits who you can be. It means that a young African-American man like my father can start a business with $500 and a dream. It means that a young African-American woman like my mother can walk into European fashion houses with her head held high and be treated with respect. Linda Johnson Rice
Spend a day around my players, around my African-American players, my Hispanic players, my Polynesian players, and you’ll see the true beauty of who they are. Bob Stoops
We can’t all work in the inner city. And, I don’t even think that it is incumbent upon an African-American intellectual to be concerned in their work with problems of race and class. It’s just one of the things, that we here at the DuBois Institute, are concerned about. Henry Louis Gates
The only reason I’ve been so critical of hip-hop is because I’ve always been aware of the effect that it has, and the reflection that it gives of the African-American community. Saul Williams
A lot of these things in this world were only a dream for Martin Luther King. Not a one-term, but a two-term African-American president. And this is a terrible country? That was a dream for Martin Luther King. Dabo Swinney
To make an absolutely gross generalization, I think a lot of people feel like if you’re mixed, more often than not you’re quote unquote white. So if you’re mixed, you embrace the mainstream culture more than the African-American culture. Keegan-Michael Key
Getting into the banjo and discovering that it was an African-American instrument, it totally turned on its head my idea of American music – and then, through that, American history. Rhiannon Giddens
I have never been more proud of the United States than I am this year. We have elected an African-American president. We have the stellar Michelle Obama setting the standard for American women. I simply cannot say it enough: look how far we’ve come. Kathryn Stockett
Being black, I’m involved in the reparations movement. It’s focused toward the African-American audience. We could begin to heal. Cassandra Wilson
These same people who accuse Planned Parenthood of ‘targeting’ African-American children, they care about you only while you’re in the womb. The minute you crown, you’re on your own. Gwen Moore
Popular culture – above all rock ‘n’ roll, with its African-American R & B roots – did far more to radicalize us than did any feminist leader. Camille Paglia
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination – and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past – are real and must be addressed. Barack Obama
I feel at home in a lot of places, but I am truly an African-American. Yaya DaCosta
Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been the last person to have wanted his iconization and his heroism. He was an enormously guilt-laden man. He was drenched in a sense of shame about his being featured as the preeminent leader of African-American culture and the civil rights movement. Michael Eric Dyson
Since Bush has been in office, African-American women have fallen behind in terms of income and wages. Donna Brazile
I don’t necessarily believe there’s a message in the fact that I’m an African-American Republican. I think there is a message that America as a whole, we are now awake. We are looking at a political construct and we’re fairly disappointed. I think the message is no matter where you come from in this country, there is great potential. Tim Scott
In 2008, Barack Obama had all the wind at his back, everything going for him. He was an African-American at a time when the country was eager to do that. The Republicans had, in the view of many of us, pretty much disgraced themselves at home and abroad for eight years. George Will
I hate white people writing for black people; it’s so offensive. So we go out and look specifically for African-American voices. Lee Daniels
I could fall in love with a sumo wrestler if he told stories and made me laugh. Obviously, it would be easier if someone was African-American and lived next door and went to the same church. Because then I wouldn’t have to translate. Maya Angelou
Obama was elected in a flourish of promise that many in the African-American community believed would help not only to symbolize African-American progress since the Civil War and Civil Rights Acts but that his presidency would result in doors opening in the halls of power as had never been seen before by black America. Douglas Wilder
My Native American heritage was not embraced by our family, and we grew up African-American, so I didn’t have a lot of access or history to that line of my family. Tamara Tunie
Ali was the African-American who exulted in saying exactly what he was capable of, and the bouncing-boy braggadocio of hip-hop is impossible to imagine without him. So it makes sense that one of his spiritual children, the sunny-dispositioned rapper turned actor Will Smith, would play him. Elvis Mitchell
I had a white senator call me a rag head, and I had an African-American legislator call me a conservative with a tan. Nikki Haley
We can revolutionize the attitude of inner city brown and black kids to learning. We need a civil rights movement within the African-American community. Henry Louis Gates
I am committed to ensure that our 2008 Republican presidential candidates forthrightly address issues of importance to the African-American community. Ken Mehlman
You never hear about a pit bull doing anything good in the media. And they have a stigma to them… and, in many ways, pit bulls are like young African-American males. Whenever you see us in the news, it’s for getting shot and killed or shooting and killing somebody – for being a stereotype. Ryan Coogler
My mother is an African-American from the South Side of Chicago who married a white guy in 1978. She was hyperaware of racism and made me aware of that. Hannah Bronfman
As an African-American, as a woman, I think that I’ve been sensitized to the way in which history privileges the white male and the way in which certain aspects of history, the things that we are taught in school, the things that are handed down, never, never entered the picture though they might have been very important. Rita Dove
Unfortunately, in television today there are very few African-American characters who are human beings. They are typically two-dimensional stereotypes, cookie-cutter types. Andre Braugher
My father had the main barber- and beauty-supply business in the African-American community in Buffalo. Helene D. Gayle
Look at the coded language the Right is using against President Barack Obama. Openly calling him a liar in Congress, saying he is ‘not a Christian, he was not born here, he is not one of us.’ That makes addressing such issues trickier for the first African-American in the White House. Jesse Jackson
I do think, however, that there’s a very diverse point of view in the African-American community. There’s a lot of different voices that need to be heard. I don’t claim and pretend to know the thoughts and opinions and ideas of all African-Americans. J. C. Watts
Out of 30 years of Second City I was probably the third African-American with the main stage cast. I was surprised when I first heard that. I think part of the reason that improvisation has never been popular with African-Americans is that it isn’t popular in the inner cities. Tim Meadows
I date African-American women. That’s all I date. In my family, it was never discussed – but I love black women. Nothing beats a sister. However, when you see a female like Jennifer Lopez, you have to acknowledge that there are many beautiful Latino women as well. Stephen A. Smith
Every African-American I know has two faces. There’s the face that we have for ourselves and the face we put on for white America for the places we have to get to. Lee Daniels
Within a lot of African-American households, I think, there’s an idea that black men don’t want to take an active participation in the lives of their children. That if they do, there has to be some sort of ulterior motive. Gabrielle Union
The Botanischer Garten in Berlin has one of Europe’s finer winter trails, leading in careful order from glasshouses devoted to African-American and Australian desert species, through a fine collection of tropical plants, and on to the orchid house. John Burnside
Here’s something that’s interesting if you look at basic metrics or numbers in this country – 71% of African-American men: no dad at home. No disciplinarian. Fathers are often the louder voice, the disciplinarian. Many of those kids don’t grow up with a dad. Colin Cowherd
You gotta understand, my great-grandfather was German and Irish. My grandmother was Indian, and my grandfather was African-American, so we all got a little something in us. Tracy Morgan
Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady. Michelle Obama
‘The Firebird’ just symbolizes a lot for me and my career. It was one of the first really big principal roles that I was ever given an opportunity to dance with American Ballet Theatre, and it was a huge step for the African-American community, I think, within the classical ballet world. Misty Copeland
Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong. Ken Mehlman
I don’t really identify myself as white or African-American. I’m just me. I’m Madison. Madison Keys
During the 2008 campaign, I strongly endorsed Barack Obama for president. I did so early, when many Democratic leaders – including many prominent African-American politicians – believed the safe bet was to back then-front-runner Hillary Clinton. Douglas Wilder
One of the things my mom used to do – I don’t know why she chose me, but she chose me out of her six children to take to the African-American church that was in the town that we lived in Springfield, Missouri. And we would go to the church, and we would sit in the back row, and we would listen to all of the spirituals in the hymns. Charlie Haden
My father is Nigerian; my mother is from Texas and African-American. My father was the first in his family to go to university. He flew from Nigeria to Los Angeles in the ’70s to go to UCLA, where he met my mother. They broke up before I was born, and he returned to Nigeria. Kehinde Wiley
The reason why I began making quilts is because I wrote my autobiography in 1980 and couldn’t get it published because I wanted to tell my story, and my story didn’t appear to be appropriate for African-American women. Faith Ringgold
In the African-American community, we struggle with a lot of health problems that have a lot to do with our diet. Marvin Sapp
I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-American. Larry Bird
I was part of a hip-hop group called Fly Style. I was one of two white girls, and I was part of the younger company, which was called Touch of Style. And it was amazing. It gave me a different perception of dance and beauty because the other girls were mostly African-American and Latina. Greta Gerwig
Um, ‘Soul Food’… Another wonderful little movie that could. Here’s a film that, I think our budget was maybe $6 million. We shot it in Chicago in six weeks. I was so proud of the film, because it showed America that an African-American film about family could sell, could do well, could cross over and have true meaning. Vivica A. Fox
Nowadays, people always say, how come he’s doing such young shows? But they never mention The Mod Squad. I was very proud of that show. It’s the first time an African-American guy kissed a white girl. Aaron Spelling
Seven years ago, my father and I realized that our relationship was extremely unique, especially in the African-American community. He raised me to not only understand the fundamentals of basketball and to try to be a player with a high basketball IQ, but he wanted me to understand that my image and my name meant more than stats. Allan Houston
I went through a soul-searching period. I went to a place that was a little bit more reflective and dark. I began to look at who I am, who I was, where I come from, what my culture is, and who I am as an African-American person in America. Usher
My understanding of racial discrimination as a child was highly distorted because the most prominent man in Archery was an African-American bishop. When he came home from up north, where he was in charge of A.M.E. churches in five states, it was front-page news. He was the most successful man in my life. Jimmy Carter
I’m here not just as an actress but as a woman, an African-American, a granddaughter of Ellis Island immigrants, a person who could not have afforded college without the help of student loans and as one of millions of volunteers working to re-elect President Obama! Kerry Washington
Funny enough though, despite what Donald Trump has to say and the way African-American people are portrayed so often in media, African-American people can have a leaning to be very conservative. Lynn Whitfield
The African-American community still needs to come together as one and stand up for rights of the people and of what’s happening in their culture, their community. Ziggy Marley
As an African-American actor, a lot of our stories haven’t been told. Chadwick Boseman
The bottom line is that Wanda Sykes has the longest continuously documented family tree of any African-American we have ever researched. Henry Louis Gates
