Racial Barrier Quotes

All though I didn't meet him. His legend and his saga and his story is just that. Jackie Robinson, we all have to tip our hat to him. Because he made the game available to guys like me.

When Ozzie Virgil became the first Dominican player in the majors, his nationality was barely noticed. What the press and fans talked about was his skin color. He was the first black player on the Detroit Tigers, and a great deal of attention was paid to him as someone who crossed the color line.

The story of Jackie Robinson is also the story of Branch Rickey. He had many reasons for doing what he did, but he stood up against his own people.

Mine was an easy ride compared to Jackie Robinson's.

The biggest accomplishment, in racial terms, for Barack Obama was being elected. He had to overcome his blackness to be elected. He climbed the Mt. Everest of American politics, becoming an historic first.

I've not just played for England. I've done it for all the black players out there - to prove that they can do it.

In interviews with dozens of black advisers, friends, donors and allies, few said they had ever heard Mr. Obama muse on the experience of being the first black president of the United States, a role in which every day he renders what was once extraordinary almost ordinary.

When I was growing up, I was told you could be anything you want to be, but I didn't really believe that because you couldn't be president. Like, I knew that; we never had a black president.

Arthur Ashe had been the first black athlete to play Johannesburg at the time of apartheid.

He (Jackie Robinson) knew he had to do well. He knew that the future of blacks in baseball depended on it. The pressure was enormous, overwhelming, and unbearable at times. I don't know how he held up. I know I never could have.

The life of General Alex Dumas is so extraordinary on so many levels that it's easy to forget the most extraordinary fact about it: that it was led by a black man, in a world of whites, at the end of the eighteenth century.

My dream role is Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion.

I was not bitter by not being allowed to play in the major leagues. I just said, 'The time has not come.'

Barack Obama's official nomination as the Democratic Party's standard-bearer was a very poignant moment for millions of Americans. As the first non-white major party nominee, Obama is carrying a big load on his shoulders. He's holding the hopes and dreams of a lot of folks who thought the presidency was only reserved for white men.

The only change is that baseball has turned Paige from a second class citizen to a second class immortal.

Cooper was my road roommate, and also happened to be the first African American player drafted by a National Basketball Association team.

I met Jesse Owens once. He was a remarkable individual, and I have tremendous respect for what he did in the Olympics under the circumstances.

I literally integrated the small town of Libertyville, Illinois. I was the first person of color to reside within its borders.

Let me tell you the truth: I'm 45 years old. I never thought that I would live to see a black president.

Patrick Demarchelier was the one who got me my first 'Vogue' cover. It was French 'Vogue' - I think in '87 or '88. I think I was the first black model to be on the cover of French Vogue, which was shocking to me because when I asked them about it, they were like, 'Oh, no. We've never had that before.'

So why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one?

Say you have a young black kid, and you come to see a Sondheim show. You love the material, but you look on stage, and you don't see anyone who looks like you. That puts a barrier between the audience and what they're trying to absorb.

How many African American champions have there been over the course of WWE's history? It's something that was the elephant in the room. Nobody wanted to talk about it, but it was important for us to address it.

We pushed our first record, 'Boomerang,' to different labels, but it was hard for them to see though the 'white guys singing R&B' thing.

Because of where I come from, I never thought I'd see in my life a black candidate running for President.