We compiled a list of Black History Month quotes for days when you need motivation, inspiration, and empowerment. (We all have those days).

These quotes can also be used as great graduation quotes, Instagram captions, and Twitter posts.

Check out the list of quotes below.

“We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice”.

– Carter G. Woodson

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

– Fredrick Douglass

“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”

– Shirley Chisholm

“We all have ability. The difference is how we use it”.

– Stevie Wonder

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars, to change the world.”

– Harriet Tubman

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

– James Baldwin

“When the letter “I” in “Illness” is replaced by “We”, the result is “Wellness”.

– Malcolm X

“We don’t think you fight fire with fire best; we think you fight fire with water best. We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity.”  

– Fred Hampton

“Revolution is not a one-time event. It is becoming always vigilant for the smallest opportunity to make a genuine change in established, outgrown responses; for instance, it is learning to address each other’s difference with respect.”

– Audre Lorde

“Freedom is never given voluntarily by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

– Fannie Lou Hamer

“I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can’t sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, “This is not right”.

– Claudette Colvin

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”

– John Lewis

“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was not another.”

– Toni Morrison

“Our crown has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do is wear it.”

– James Baldwin

“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

– Rosa Parks

“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”

– Angela Davis

“We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be. A country that is bruised, but whole benevolence, but bold, fierce and free.”

– Amanda Gorman

“If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”

– Zora Neale Hurston

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”

– Ida B. Wells

Check out: Black History Month Then and Now