Stetson Kennedy Quotes

We do have our mistakes sometimes, like 'The New York Times' does, like everything does. We correct them.

Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction.

America is great precisely because it is an open society, and an open society recognizes that nobody is the ultimate arbiter — and that we may be wrong at times, even if we are powerful. We must be open to criticism and respect divergent and different views and interests.

A good, hard-hitting dissent keeps you honest.

Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them.

Have I said dumb things? Absolutely, who hasn't? But I have never backed away from being called out on something I did or said wrong.

Good people can disagree - all you want is honesty, because you know, if I disagree, I'm willing to debate you on that, and then let the public decide what's good policy and bad policy.

Calling oneself a hero after making mistakes shouldn't earn public trust.

I personally think that if you deny something or if you hide something you're inadvertently admitting it's wrong.

Anyone working at HootSuite will tell you that I don't sugarcoat my opinions. I heavily encourage feedback and suggestions - partly because I'm blunt about offering the same in return.

Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady; but a newspaper can always print a retraction.

When people are wrong, you've got to let them know it.

The public is very forgiving. So we're not trying to obtain some level of perfection that can't be obtained. But if you're straightforward and honest and your constituents trust you, they'll help you get through the times when you fall short.

I love criticism. Equitable Life went down because management wouldn't brook criticism, but if you are in business, you have to hear what's going wrong.

... rich white leaders of the American South defeated populism in the late 19th century, by persuading poor Whites to hate poor Blacks.

Error is the force that welds men together; truth is communicated to men only by deeds of truth.

It always has been, and always will be the position of The Independent that the white folks will prepare Jim Crow accommodations for Negroes just so long as the race produces a Jim Crow leadership. Men would not make cotton, corn and other commodities to sell if there was no market for them; and in like manner, the white man would not offer the Negro second class or Jim Crow accommodations if the Negro would not accept them; and the Negro may expect to be Jim Crowed, buzzard-roosted, discriminated against, kicked about, kicked off the street cars and hauled on elevators with trash and garbage, boxes and plunder, so long as he submits to such conditions and grins at the white man with his hat in his hand. The Independent is informed that Billy Sunday will preach to the Jim Crow Negroes of Atlanta in the Jim Crow meeting provided for Negroes only in his tabernacle Monday night. Now, the gospel of Jesus Christ knows no color line. It is as susceptible to the black man as the white man. Jesus died for all; not for the white folk or for the black folk, but for every man who would seek him diligently in spirit and truth; and, if Billy Sunday can’t preach to Negroes and white folks under the same tent, at the same time, then he ought not to preach to either

In the South the white men used to call all Black men “boy” until they got to be old enough to call them “uncle.” It was sex-the feat of sexual competition. When they used to get liquored up and talk they would always say, “The schoolroom leads to the bedroom” to justify school segregation.

There was no need to send Negro troops to Cuba …. It is criminal.

If I had known of discrimination before I signed I wouldn’t have come. I heard in the midst of rehearsal a few days ago that no Negro can come into the theater. And in the capital city, too. Before I came to America, I didn’t know there was any place where colored people could not come in.

We do not discriminate concerning marriage in the South; we simply do not let the whites and Negroes intermarry. We treat the white the same as the Negro.

I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes.

When you make a mistake—a big mistake, you’re going to have to apologize—a lot!

We need an opposition to remind us if we are making mistakes. When you are not opposed you think everything you do is right.

A very large proportion of Virginians would want to continue segregation of the races because we believe we can provide a better system of education by doing that.