- “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” — Shirley Chisholm.
- “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” — Maya Angelou.
- “I won’t continue knocking on that old door that doesn’t open for me. I will create my door and walk through that.” — Ava DuVernay.
- “I had to make my living and my opportunity. But I made it!” — Madam C.J. Walker.
- “Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get, you’ve got to make yourself.” — Alice Walker
- “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” — Angela Davis.
- “I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else.'” — Toni Morrison
- “We must never forget that Black History is American History. The achievements of African Americans have contributed to our nation’s greatness.” — Yvette Clarke.
- “I had to learn very early not to limit myself due to others’ limited imaginations.” — Dr. Mae Jemison.
- “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” — W.E.B. Du Bois.
- “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” — Langston Hughes.
- “I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.” — Audre Lorde.
- “I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else’s whim or ignorance.” — Bell Hooks.
- “You have to act as if it were possible to transform the world radically. And you must do it all the time.” — Angela Davis.
- “The time is always right to do what is right.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive.” — Maya Angelou.
- “Deal with yourself as an individual worthy of respect and make everyone else deal with you the same way.” — Nikki Giovanni
- “Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. It’s hard work that makes things happen.” — Shonda Rhimes.
- “Define success on your terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.” — Michelle Obama
- “In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.” — Thurgood Marshall.
- “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” — Maya Angelou.
- “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” — Nelson Mandela.
- “Black excellence is a form of resistance.” — Brittany Packnett Cunningham.
- “Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” — Madam C.J. Walker.