Famous quotes containing the words american, race and/or walking:
“Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the grand-daughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you. The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said On the line! The Reconstruction said Go! I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (18911960)
“The civility of the world has reached that pitch that their more moral genius is becoming indispensable, and the quality of this race is to be honored for itself.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“And when we
come to earth the roofs
are made of tiles,
pigeons
are walking on them....”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)