Allah and Peace

"I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace."

Muhammad Ali

Respect Me

"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being."

Jackie Robinson

Freedom

"Freedom is never given; it is won."

A. Philip Randolph

Starless Midnight

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The American Tapestry

"The African-American experience is one of the most important threads in the American tapestry."

Bill Frist

A Minimum of Reason

"Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason."

Abraham Joshua Heschel

On Slavery

"Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril."

William Lloyd Garrison

On a Plantation

"You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation."

Billie Holiday

Defining Myself

"Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face."

Carol Moseley-Braun

Starving Men

"Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread."

Richard Wright

Shallow Understanding

"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter From Birmingham City Jail

Teach Them How to Stop

"You don't have to teach people how to be human.

You have to teach them how to stop being inhuman."

Eldridge Cleaver

Move Past Your Fear

"I think when you move past your fear and you go after your dreams wholeheartedly, you become free."

LL Cool J

Valentine's Day -- Angels Embracing

"We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another."

Lucretius

The Dawn Has Come

"Death is not extinguishing the light, it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come."

Rabindranath Tagore

(1861-1941)

Love

"If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with."

Michael Jackson

RIP Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston
(August 9, 1963 - February 11, 2012)
May you find peace in the Lord.

"I am absolutely heartbroken at the news of Whitney's passing, I always regretted not having had the opportunity to work with her. She was a true original and a talent beyond compare. I will miss her terribly."
Quincy Jones, Music Producer

Life Is Not a Spectator Sport

"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

Don't Pray

"Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines."

Satchel Paige

About Friendship

"Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."

Muhammad Ali

Africa

"For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place."

Maya Angelou

Diminish God's Glory?

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

C.S. Lewis

The Same Message

"All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness. The important thing is they should be part of our daily lives."

Dalai Lama

A Life Lesson From Football

"People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society."

Vince Lombardi

Failures

"Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement."

C.S. Lewis

Fame

"Fame will go by and, so long, I've had you, fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experience, but that's not where I live."

Marilyn Monroe

A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
"Harlem" (1951)

RIP

"...I'm Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and souuuuuul...."
RIP
Don Cornelius
(September 27, 1936 - February 1, 2012)

Chicago Tribune: Don Cornelius: Peace, love, soul -- and civil rights
Greg Kot, Music critic, 6:29 p.m. CST, February 1, 2012
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/turnitup/chi-don-cornelius-legacy-legacy-of-soul-train-host-20120201,0,2718985.column

Black History Month - On Twoness

"It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others. . . . One ever feels his twoness, — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warrings ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
The Souls of Black Folk (1903)