Work, service, and the daily lifting of others have always been sacred ground in African American history. Martin Luther King, Jr. named the dignity in every honest job: “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” These quotations honor that labor of heart and mind, and the long walk toward a more just world.

When someone stumbles, I don't believe in stomping on him. My philosophy is “Pick ’em up, dust ’em off and get ’em moving again.” ~ Colin Powell

The burden of being black is that you have to be superior just to be equal. But the glory of it is that, once you achieve, you have achieved indeed. ~ Jesse Jackson African American Quotations, 1998

The past is a ghost, the future a dream. All we ever have is now. ~ Bill Cosby

From any point of view, I had rather be what I am, a member of the Negro race, than be able to claim membership with the most favored of any other race. ~ Booker T. Washington

Aunt Jemima and Uncle Tom are dead, their places taken by a group of amazingly well-adjusted young men and women, almost as dark, but ferociously literate, well-dressed and scrubbed, who are never laughed at. ~ James Baldwin Notes of a Native Son

I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is, I'd be pulling for him. ~ Hank Aaron

Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life. ~ Jackie Robinson

The color of the skin is in no way connected with strength of the mind or intellectual powers. ~ Benjamin Banneker

Being a black woman, I've struggled with that my whole life feeling that if I changed, my life would be better. ~ Halle Berry

Black people have always been America's wilderness in search of a promised land. ~ Cornel West Race Matters