Welcome to our collection of Carter G Woodson Quotes! Carter G. Woodson was an African American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Through his research and writings, Woodson championed the importance of black history and was an important advocate for civil rights. His words of wisdom still carry great weight and insight into the African American experience today. Here, we have gathered some of his most memorable quotes to inspire and motivate you.
Carter G. Woodson Quotes
🟢”As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.”
“For me, education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better.”
🟢”History shows that it does not matter who is in power or what revolutionary forces take over the government, those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they had in the beginning.”
🟢”If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.”
🟢”If the Negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto.”
🟢”If you can control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.”
🟢”If you teach the Negro that he has accomplished as much good as any other race he will aspire to equality and justice without regard to race. Such an effort would upset the program of the oppressor in Africa and America. Play up before the Negro, then, his crimes and shortcomings. Let him learn to admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin and the Teuton. Lead the Negro to detest the man of African blood–to hate himself.”
🟢”In fact, the confidence of the people is worth more than money.”
🟢”In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them.”
🟢”In the long run, there is not much discrimination against superior talent.”
🟢”No man knows what he can do until he tries.”
🟢”Philosophers have long conceded, however, that every man has two educators: ‘that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself. Of the two kinds the latter is by far the more desirable. Indeed all that is most worthy in man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is that which constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves.”
🟢”The large majority of the Negroes who have put on the finishing touches of our best colleges are all but worthless in the development of their people.”
🟢”The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the effort must result in making a man think and do for himself.”
🟢”The oppressor has always indoctrinated the weak with his interpretation of the crimes of the strong.”
🟢”The real servant of the people must live among them, think with them, feel for them, and die for them.”
🟢”The same educational process which inspires and stimulates the oppressor with the thought that he is everything and has accomplished everything worth while, depresses and crushes at the same time the spark of genius in the Negro by making him feel that his race does not amount to much and never will measure up to the standards of other peoples.”
🟢”The thought of’ the inferiority of the Negro is drilled into him in almost every class he enters and in almost every book he studies.”
🟢”Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.”
🟢”Truth must be dug up from the past and presented to the circle of scholastics in scientific form and then through stories and dramatizations that will permeate our educational system.”
🟢”We have a wonderful history behind us. … If you are unable to demonstrate to the world that you have this record, the world will say to you, ‘You are not worthy to enjoy the blessings of democracy or anything else’.”
🟢”We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world, void of national bias, race, hate, and religious prejudice. There should be no indulgence in undue eulogy of the Negro. The case of the Negro is well taken care of when it is shown how he has far influenced the development of civilization.”
🟢”When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.”
🟢”You must give your own story to the world.”
Carter G. Woodson Quotes About Discrimination
“In the long run, there is not much discrimination against superior talent.”
🟢”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.”
🟢”Negroes who have been so long inconvenienced and denied opportunities for development are naturally afraid of anything that sounds like discrimination.”
Carter G. Woodson Quotes About Diversity
🟢”The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the effort must result in making a man think and do for himself.”
🟢”The same educational process which inspires and stimulates the oppressor with the thought that he is everything and has accomplished everything worth while, depresses and crushes at the same time the spark of genius in the Negro by making him feel that his race does not amount to much and never will measure up to the standards of other peoples.”
🟢”The so-called modern education, with all its defects, however, does others so much more good than it does the Negro, because it has been worked out in conformity to the needs of those who have enslaved and oppressed weaker peoples.”
“What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.”
Carter G. Woodson Quotes About Education
🟢”In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them.”
🟢”The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the effort must result in making a man think and do for himself.”
🟢”As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.”
🟢”Our most widely known scholars have been trained in universities outside of the South.”
🟢”The thought of the inferiority of the negro is drilled into him in almost every class he enters and in almost every book he studies.”
🟢”This crusade is more important than the anti-lynching movement because there would be no lynching if it did not start in the classroom.”
🟢”The large majority of the negroes who have put on the finishing touches of our best colleges are all but worthless in the development of their people.”
🟢”Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose their inspiration which comes from teaching biography and history.”
🟢”For me education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better.”
Carter G. Woodson Quotes About Giving
🟢”In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them.
🟢”Philosophers have long conceded, however, that every man has two educators: ‘that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself. Of the two kinds the latter is by far the more desirable. Indeed all that is most worthy in man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is that which constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught seldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves.
“You must give your own story to the world.
Carter G. Woodson Quotes About History
🟢“We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”The large majority of the Negroes who have put on the finishing touches of our best colleges are all but worthless in the development of their people.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”The thought of the inferiority of the Negro is drilled into him in almost every class he enters and in almost every book he studies.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”The oppressor has always indoctrinated the weak with his interpretation of the crimes of the strong.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.” — Carter G. Woodson
“When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”Even schools for Negroes, then, are places where they must be convinced of their inferiority.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”Negroes who have been so long inconvenienced and denied opportunities for development are naturally afraid of anything that sounds like discrimination.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”The so-called modern education, with all its defects, however, does others so much more good than it does the Negro, because it has been worked out in conformity to the needs of those who have enslaved and oppressed weaker peoples.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”In schools of theology Negroes are taught the interpretation of the Bible worked out by those who have justified segregation and winked at the economic debasement of the Negro at times almost to the point of starvation.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”The same educational process which inspires and stimulates the oppressor with the thought that he is everything and has accomplished everything worthwhile depresses and crushes at the same time the spark of genius in the Negro by making him feel that his race does not amount to much and never will measure up to the standards of other peoples.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world, void of national bias, race, hate, and religious prejudice.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”The present system under the control of the whites trains the Negro to be white and at the same time convinces him of the impropriety or the impossibility of his becoming white.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”Negro banks, as a rule, have failed because the people, taught that their own pioneers in business cannot function in this sphere, withdrew their deposits.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”Why not exploit, enslave, or exterminate a class that everybody is taught to regard as inferior?” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”We have a wonderful history behind us. … If you are unable to demonstrate to the world that you have this record, the world will say to you, ‘You are not worthy to enjoy the blessings of democracy or anything else’.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”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. Woodson
🟢”History shows that it does not matter who is in power or what revolutionary forces take over the government, those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they had in the beginning.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”The bondage of the Negro brought captive from Africa is one of the greatest dramas in history, and the writer who merely sees in that ordeal something to approve or condemn fails to understand the evolution of the human race.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢”If you teach the Negro that he has accomplished as much good as any other race he will aspire to equality and justice without regard to race. Such an effort would upset the program of the oppressor in Africa and America. Play up before the Negro, then, his crimes and shortcomings. Let him learn to admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin, and the Teuton. Lead the Negro to detest the man of African blood–to hate himself.” — Carter G. Woodson
Carter G. Woodson Quotes About Justice
🟢”For me, education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better.”
🟢”If you teach the Negro that he has accomplished as much good as any other race he will aspire to equality and justice without regard to race.”
🟢”Such an effort would upset the program of the oppressor in Africa and America. Play up before the Negro, then, his crimes and shortcomings.”
“Let him learn to admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin and the Teuton. Lead the Negro to detest the man of African blood–to hate himself.”
🟢”The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the effort must result in making a man think and do for himself.”
🟢”The same educational process which inspires and stimulates the oppressor with the thought that he is everything and has accomplished everything worth while, depresses and crushes at the same time the spark of genius in the Negro by making him feel that his race does not amount to much and never will measure up to the standards of other peoples.”
🟢”The so-called modern education, with all its defects, however, does others so much more good than it does the Negro, because it has been worked out in conformity to the needs of those who have enslaved and oppressed weaker peoples.”
Carter G. Woodson Quotes About Teaching
🟢”As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.”
🟢”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. Woodson Quotes About Worry
🟢”If you can control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.”
🟢”When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.”
Dr. Carter G Woodson Quotes On Race
🟢”If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in the danger of being exterminated.”
🟢”In the long run, there is not much discrimination against superior talent.”
🟢”The differentness 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.”
🟢”If the negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto.”
🟢”In fact, the confidence of people is worth more than money.”
🟢”I’m ready to act if I can brave men to help me.”
🟢”Let us banish fear.”
🟢”No man knows what he can do until he tries.”
🟢”The author takes the position that the consumer pays the tax, and as such every individual of the social order should be given unlimited opportunity to make the most of himself.”
🟢”If a white man wants to hold on to it, let him do so; but the Negro, so far as he is able, should develop and carry out a program of his own.”
🟢”The real servant of the people must live among them, think with them, feel for them, and die for them.”
“The race needs workers, not leaders.”
🟢”At this moment, then, the Negroes must begin to do the very thing which they have been taught they cannot do.”
🟢”Truth comes to us from the past, then, like gold washed down from the mountains.”
🟢”You must give your own story to the world.”
🟢”What we need is a history of selected races or nations of the world void of national bias, race, hate, and religious prejudice.”
🟢”The oppressor has always indoctrinated the weak with his interpretation of the crimes of the strong.”
Carter G. Woodson quotes about the fight for equality
🟢“It may be well to repeat here the saying that old men talk of what they have done, young men of what they are doing, and fools of what they expect to do. The Negro race has a rather large share of the last-mentioned class.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢“There should be no indulgence in undue eulogy of the Negro.” — Carter G. Woodson
🟢“The case of the Negro is well taken care of when it is shown how he has far influenced the development of civilization.” — Carter G. Woodson
Verdict
Carter G. Woodson’s Quotes serve as an inspiration to us all. His words remind us to strive for excellence and to strive for justice. He encourages us to be proud of our heritage and to use education to improve our communities. We can all learn something from his words and apply them to our everyday lives.