There's no reason for the establishment to fear me. But it has every right to fear the people collectively - I am one with the people.
White America has seen to it that Black history has been suppressed in schools and in American history books. The bravery of hundreds of our ancestors who took part in slave rebellions has been lost in the mists of time, since plantation owners did their best to prevent any written accounts of uprisings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the suppression of Black history in educational systems and the importance of acknowledging the bravery of ancestors who resisted oppression.
Huey Newton's quote speaks to the systematic erasure of Black history from American education, emphasizing how the narratives of bravery and resistance during slavery have been overshadowed by those who controlled the history. It underscores the importance of recognizing and remembering the struggles and acts of defiance against slavery, as these stories are integral to understanding not only Black history but American history as a whole.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a presentation about the importance of accurately teaching Black history in schools.
More from Huey Newton
All quotes βThose in the community who defy authority and 'break the law' seem to enjoy the good life and have everything in the way of material possessions. On the other hand, people who work hard and struggle and suffer much are the victims of greed and indifference, losers. This insane reversal of values presses heavily on the Black community. The causes originate from outside and are imposed by a system that ruthlessly seeks its own rewards, no matter what the cost in wrecked human lives.
There will be no prison which can hold our movement down.
I expected to die. At no time before the trial did I expect to escape with my life. Yet being executed in the gas chamber did not necessarily mean defeat. It could be one more step to bring the community to a higher level of consciousness.
By surrendering my life to the revolution, I found eternal life
But before we die, how shall we live? I say with hope and dignity; and if premature death is the result, that death has a meaning reactionary suicide can never have. It is the price of self-respect.
Similar quotes
Our national history cannot be national if, in the near future, one in three young adults feels their stories remain untold, if this country's long global history of empire and interconnections is marginalised and if the historical reality of race is rendered almost invisible.
All historical writing, even the most honest, is unconsciously subjective, since every age is bound, in spite of itself, to make the dead perform whatever tricks it finds necessary for its own peace of mind.
Momma said that ghosts couldn't move over water. That's why Africans got trapped in the Americas.. They kept moving us over the water, stealing us away from our ghosts and ancestors, who cried salty rivers into the sand. That's where Momma was now, wailing at the water's edge, while her girls were pulled out of sight under white sails that cracked in the wind.
Human blunders usually do more to shape history than human wickedness.
Finally, I wish to remember the millions of Allied servicemen and prisoners of war who lived the story of the Second World War. Many of these men never came home; many others returned bearing emotional and physical scars that would stay with them for the rest of their lives. I come away from this book with the deepest appreciation for what these men endured, and what they scarified, for the good of humanity. It is to them that this book {Unbroken} is dedicated.
There are two kinds of man: the ones who make history and the ones who endure it.