Gwen Carr - We are going to get out here, I am going to get out here and get something done. We have to wake up America. We have to make America uncomfortable like we’ve been uncomfortable for 400 yea
Howard Thurman - Do not be silent; there is no limit to the power that may be released through you.
Abraham Lincoln - I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any Abolitionist.
O’brian Rosario - Juneteenth was a promise that was broken. Reconstruction failed and this country has continued to wage war on the Black body.
O’brian Rosario - Juneteenth also embodies the resilience of Black people. Even in the face of a broken system, we choose to find joy in resistance and celebrate in community.
Tanesha Grant - Juneteenth symbolizes the hope that my children and grandchildren will be free. It’s Black joy and Black tenacity to survive.
Harriet Tubman - God’s time is always near. He set the North star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free.
Nikki Giovanni - Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.
George Washington - I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.
Zoé Samudzi - We are not ready to fight because we love fighting. We are ready to fight because we are worth fighting for.
Ella Fitzgerald - Just don't give up what you're trying to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.
Tanesha Grant - As Black people, we are told we don’t deserve our own holidays rooted in our own history. Everything is whitewashed.
John Lewis - You must never, ever give out. We must keep the faith because we are one people. We are brothers and sisters. We all live in the same house—the American house.
Dannese Mapanda - Juneteenth reminds me of Black freedom dreams—my freedom dreams.
Brandon Gonzalez - Studying the blueprints of liberation, one can map out the ways we as The Global African Diaspora have continued to resist and exist under regimes of anti-Black terror.
Brandon Gonzalez - Since the development of racial capitalism—the use of African peoples as capital—our ancestors have always fought for freedom.
Martin Luther King Jr. - The goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny.
Mariah Cooley - June 19th reminds me that I am the force of power to change this world and to follow in the footsteps of my ancestors to work towards liberation.
James Baldwin - Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed—I, too, am America.
Beyonce - No violence will create peace…To effect change we must show love in the face of hate and peace in the face of violence.
Coretta Scott King - Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.
Chadwick Boseman - Understanding history is one of many ways to break the cycle. Lift up/amplify Black voices. Support Black owned businesses. Reach back. Mentor.
Richard Wright - We Black folk, our history, and our present being, are a mirror of all the manifold experiences of America.
Richard Wright - What we want, what we represent, what we endure is what America is. If we black folk perish, America will perish.
Kamala Harris - Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all, including Black women who are often, too often overlooked, but so often prove they are the backbon
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Liberty is slow fruit. It is never cheap; it is made difficult because freedom is the accomplishment and perfectness of man.
Fatimata Cham - Liberation lies within us and will not be formed from the current institutional structures we have in place for it never has.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham - Every Black person you meet is a miracle.
Tatiana Glover - Juneteenth is another moment for me and my loved ones to build an archive of truth and experience of Black folks.
Aretha Franklin - We all require and want respect, man or woman, Black or white. It's our basic human right.
Karen Lamb - A year from now, you may wish you had started today.
Doe Zantamata - Every morning starts a new page in your story. Make it a great one today.
Abu Bakr - It is a matter of shame that in the morning the birds should be awake earlier than you.
Toni Morrison - Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
Shirley Chisholm - In the end, anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism.
Martin Luther King Jr. - Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Malcolm X - You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
Harriet Tubman - I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.
Fannie Lou Hamer - Nobody’s until everybody’s
Pharrell Williams - The day we were free—everyone was free. Why not make it a paid holiday? We deserve that…We want a day that is inclusive to everyone.
Maya Angelou - You may kill me with your hatefulness. But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Colin Kaepernick - I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.
Frederick Douglass - I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
Rosa Parks - I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free.
Kwame Nkruma - Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own and none can keep it from them.
Theodorea Regina Berry - The proclamation notes that freedom shall not be repressed. This is what I believe to be the primary significance of Juneteenth.
Dr. Greg Carr - Every June 19th is an opportunity for us to continue the momentum of memory, and the parade and the self-determination movements.
Abraham Lincoln - Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
Michelle Obama - There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.
Harriet Tubman - Now I’ve been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.