Faith Ringgold Quotes

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

I think about freedom and the urgency around our imagination. If you can't imagine it, you can't fight for it.

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

The glorious spectacle of eighteen millions of people, struggling to burst their chains and be free.

No people will be truly free until all are free.

… true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in the courts. It begins in woman's soul. History tells us that every oppressed class gained true liberation from its masters through its own efforts.

Rights are to be taken, not requested; seized, not begged for.

The main fight of Frelimo is against human exploitation.

In raising a people from slavery to freedom, you have called them to act on a new theatre; and it is a necessary part of your business, to teach them how to perform their parts.

Subjection of any kind and in any place is beneath the dignity of man ... the highest joy is to fight by the side of those who for any reason of their own making or ours, are unable to develop to full human stature.

The day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he's within his rights, when his own freedom is being jeopardized, to use any means necessary to bring about his freedom or put a halt to that injustice, I don't think he'll be by himself.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man's right to his body, or woman's right to her soul.

To this wonderful page in our country's history another more glorious still will be added, and the slave shall show at last to his free brothers a sharpened sword forged from the links of his fetters.

You don't have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.

I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free.

The great are only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Until we are all free, we are none of us free.

We gain freedom when we have paid the full price.

The work does not end with the abolition of slavery but only begins.

How many years can some people exist Before they're allowed to be free?

Neither God, nor angels, or just men, command you to suffer for a single moment. Therefore it is your solemn and imperative duty to use every means, both moral, intellectual, and physical, that promise success .... Brethren, arise, arise! Strike for your lives and liberties.... Let your motto be resistance, resistance, resistance!

Radicalism is a label that is always applied to people who are endeavoring to get freedom.

You will be emancipated from tyranny and oppression …