“I want to go to my country, if I can go back with the substance of freedom in my hand; and if you do not give us freedom, you will have to give me a grave here”

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”

“I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.”

“I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But getused to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours;my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”

“I'm a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I'm no cheek turner. I got no respect for a man who won't hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat.”

“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it - then I can achieve it.”

“Go to College, Stay in school, If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.”