You don't have to go behind bars to be in jail in this country. If you are born in this country with black skin you are already in jail, you are already confined, you are already watched over by a warden who poses as your mayor and poses as your governor and poses as your President.

We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, my brothers and sisters—Plymouth Rock landed on us!

I could tell the impact of this upon them. They had been aware that the plight of the black man in America was bad, but they had not been aware that it was inhuman, that it was psychological castration.

the collective white man had acted like a devil in virtually every contact he had with the world's non-white man.

Indeed, how can white society atone for enslaving, for raping, for unmanning, for otherwise brutalizing millions of human beings, for centuries? What atonement would the God of Justice demand for the robbery of the black people's labor, their lives, their true identities, their culture, their history--and even their human dignity?

You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I'm not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man.

I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.

the numbers game was referred to by the white racketeers as "nigger pool.

Goodness—what defines a good person. Keep to it in everything you do.

Justice: so that you'll speak the truth, frankly and without evasions, and act as you should—and as other people deserve.

Keep thyself therefore, truly simple, good, sincere, grave, free from all ostentation, a lover of that which is just, religious, kind, tender-hearted, strong and vigorous to undergo anything that becomes thee.

22. Not to be driven this way and that, but always to behave with justice and see things as they are.