Power

We pursue power at the risk of sacrificing things. These quotes from prominent African-Americans open our eyes to the way power affects us all.

But I believe we have a higher level of mentality within us, but we have to use the power in the right way.
Tina Turner, Tina Turner Interview

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity.
Mary McLeod Bethune, Last Will & Testament of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.
Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

Power at its best is love implementing the demand of justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Frederick Douglass, Civil Disobedience Manual

Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it.
Ralph Ellison

Power never takes a back step - only in the face of more power.
Malcolm X

The black fist is a meaningless symbol. When you open it, you have nothing but fingers -- weak, empty fingers. The only time the black fist has significance is when there's money inside. There's where the power lies.
Jesse Owens

The major job was getting people to understand that they had something within their power that they could use, and it could only be used if they understood what was happening and how group action could counter violence.
Ella Baker

The only protection against INJUSTICE in man is POWER?Physical, financial and scientific.
Marcus Garvey, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey

The power that holds Africa is human, and it is recognized that whatsoever man has done, man can do.
Marcus Garvey

We live in a world which respects power above all things. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Unwisely directed, it can be a dreadful, destructive force.
Mary McLeod Bethune, Last Will & Testament of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune

What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.
Toni Morrison