American - Author | January 1, 1915 - July 16, 1998
A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience's attention, then he can teach his lesson.
John Henrik Clarke
GoodGood TeacherTeacherAttention
History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are but, more importantly, what they must be.
HistoryTimeDayPeoplePolitical
A people's relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother.
MotherRelationshipChildPeople
We have been educated into believing someone else's concept of the deity, and someone else's standard of beauty. You have the right to practice any religion and politics in a way that best suits your freedom, your dignity, and your understanding. And once you do that, you don't apologize.
BeautyFreedomBestPoliticsSuits
Religion is the organization of spirituality into something that became the hand maiden of conquerors. Nearly all religions were brought to people and imposed on people by conquerors, and used as the framework to control their minds.
ReligionPeopleOrganizationControl
Had Elijah Muhammad tried to introduce an orthodox form of Arab-oriented Islam, I doubt if he would have attracted 500 people, but he introduced a form of Islam that would communicate with the people he had to deal with. He was the king to those who had no king, and he was the messiah to those some people thought unworthy of a messiah.
KingPeopleThoughtDoubtIslam
Egypt gave birth to what later would become known as 'Western Civilization,' long before the greatness of Greece and Rome.
GreatnessLongRomeEgyptBecome
What I have learned is that a whole lot of people with degrees don't know a damn thing, and a lot of people with no degrees are brilliant.
PeopleI Have LearnedKnowDamn
The acceptance of the facts of African-American history and the African-American historian as a legitimate part of the academic community did not come easily. Slavery ended and left its false images of black people intact.
CommunityHistoryAcceptancePeople
Africa and its people are the most written about and the least understood of all of the world's people. This condition started in the 15th and the 16th centuries with the beginning of the slave trade system. The Europeans not only colonialized most of the world, they began to colonialize information about the world and its people.
BeginningPeopleWorldInformation
In the United States, the Supreme Court's decision of 1954, outlawing segregation in school systems, was greeted with mixed feelings of hope and skepticism by African-Americans.
HopeDecisionSchoolFeelingsUnited
Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power. You will take it.
PowerPeopleYouPowerfulWillAsk
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict John Henrik Clarke quotes