104 Quotes by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Ending the slave trade was contrary to British economic interests. For all its limitations and hypocrisies – British slavery itself, of course, still continued to exist – I still think it was a great moment in human history.

Patriotism is best exemplified through auto-critique.

Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.

No white racist makes you get pregnant when you are a black teenager.

The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.

If you don’t tell your stories, other people will tell their story about you. It’s important that we nurture and protect these memories. Things change. Existence means change.

In the old days, you lived in one neighborhood, you knew all your neighbors and your daughter married the guy next door. That was social and economic progress. That model is gone now. We also had a world order that was fraught but fairly stable.

Everything my mother and father did was designed to put me where I am.

People who own property feel a sense of ownership in their future and their society. They study, save, work, strive and vote. And people trapped in a culture of tenancy do not.