QuoteProject
The Negroes are facing the alternative of rising in the sphere of production to supply their proportion of the manufacturers and merchants or of going down to the graves of paupers.
Carter G. Woodson
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote highlights the struggle for economic empowerment and the dire consequences of failing to achieve it.

Carter G. Woodson emphasizes the critical choice that African Americans face in striving for economic and social advancement. He suggests that they must either actively engage in productive labor and entrepreneurship to elevate their status within society or risk falling into poverty and despair. The quote underscores the urgent need for self-determination and participation in the economic sphere as a means of avoiding a grim future.

Themes

Economic EmpowermentSocial AdvancementManufacturersMerchantsPaupers

In practice

Example use cases

During a community meeting discussing economic initiatives.

More from Carter G. Woodson

I am not afraid of being sued by white businessmen. In fact, I should welcome such a law suit.
Carter G. WoodsonRead
If Liberia has failed, then, it is no evidence of the failure of the Negro in government. It is merely evidence of the failure of slavery.
Carter G. WoodsonRead
If the Negroes are to remain forever removed from the producing atmosphere, and the present discrimination continues, there will be nothing left for them to do.
Carter G. WoodsonRead
Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.
Carter G. WoodsonRead
The different ness of races, moreover, is no evidence of superiority or of inferiority. This merely indicates that each race has certain gifts which the others do not possess.
Carter G. WoodsonRead
This assumption of Negro leadership in the ghetto, then, must not be confined to matters of religion, education, and social uplift; it must deal with such fundamental forces in life as make these things possible.
Carter G. WoodsonRead

Similar quotes

Nobody lives forever, but we all shine on.
Stephen KingRead
... And the boy whose hair remained the color of lemons forever.
Markus ZusakRead
Like a morning dream, life becomes more and more bright the longer we live, and the reason of everything appears more clear. What has puzzled us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked paths look straighter as we approach the end.
Jean PaulRead
If you're feeling fancy free, come wander through the world with me, and any place we chance to be, will be a rendezvous. Two for the road, we'll travel through the years, collecting precious memories, selecting souvenirs and living life the way we please.
Henry ManciniRead
Avoiding problems you need to face is avoiding the life you need to live.
Paulo CoelhoRead
Life is for living and working at. If you find anything or anybody a bore, the fault is in yourself.
Elizabeth IRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.