February quotes for Black History Month

Last year I commemorated the history months with articles, but I got off to a disorganized start and so I did not immediately start blogging them.

Saying I am more organized this year sounds like a stretch, but I decided to use quotes this year instead. Another woman I follow on Twitter is doing prompts, where there is a person for you to look up, rather than just giving you the information. Will it work? I don't know, but I do think it's good to change things up.

One nice thing this time is that as I found more than 28 quotes that I wanted to use, I just made sure to clear out the men and the women could start out Women's History Month in March.

Looking ahead for the whole year, I am not avoiding duplicates. Many of these people have said multiple good things. Some of them are poets, so that may not be a coincidence, but there are also comedians and scientists, actors and activists.

I changed things around to remember Jesse Jackson when he died, but there was never any doubt about which quote would start out the month. 

2/1 “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. ” ― James Baldwin

2/2 “The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing”. -- Toni Morrison 

2/3 "If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it." -- Zora Neale Hurston 

2/4 "You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. Please remember that your difficulties do not define you. They simply strengthen your ability to overcome." -- Maya Angelou 

2/5 "If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything." -- Claude McKay

2/6 "It is strange how in some things honest people can be dishonest without the slightest compunction." -- James Weldon Johnson

2/7 “Feeling good is not frivolous. It is freedom.”  -- adrienne maree brown

2/8 "I'm so tired of waiting, aren't you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?" -- Langston Hughes

2/9 "The truth is... everything counts. Everything. Everything we do and everything we say. Everything helps or hurts; everything adds to or takes away from someone else." -- Countee Cullen

2/10 "We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond." -- Gwendolyn Brooks

2/11 "We are reminded that, in the fleeting time we have on this Earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame, but rather how well we have loved and what small part we have played in making the lives of other people better." -- Barack Obama

2/12 "I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence." -- Frederick Douglass

2/13 "She knows who she is, because she knows who she isn't." -- Nikki Giovanni

2/14 "Love is man's natural endowment, but he doesn't know how to use it. He refuses to recognize the power of love because of his love of power." -- Dick Gregory

2/15 "I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in." -- George Washington Carver

2/16 "When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk." -- Barack Obama

2/17 “Leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.” – Jesse Jackson

2/18 "To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try." -- Rosa Parks

2/19 "A lie is profanity. A lie is the worst thing in the world. Art is the ability to tell the truth." -- Richard Pryor

2/20 "I have wandered many roads that I have never traveled; touched many things that my eyes have never seen. It is through stories that life is made, and through stories that life is saved." -- James Avery

2/21 "I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it." -- Claudette Colvin

2/22 "Don't follow the path. Go where there is no path and begin the trail. When you start a new trail equipped with courage, strength and conviction, the only thing that can stop you is you!" -- Ruby Bridges

2/23 "If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going." -- Harriet Tubman

2/24 "Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings and emotions." -- Will Smith

2/25 "Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me." -- Sojourner Truth

2/26 "Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us, nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties." -- Benjamin Banneker

2/27 "We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity." -- Malcolm X

2/28 “Nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all.” – Fred Hampton