The second annual Women's March is happening in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 21, and many other cities throughout the country are hosting sister marches too. The Women's March 2018commemorates 365 days of resistance, and as the past year of resistance has shown us, no march is complete without a clever sign to match. One of the best ways to come up with an eye-catching Women's March sign is to quote the Black feminists who paved the way for us in regards to political representation, educational attainment, and much more. These 26 quotes from Black feminists who have worked hard on the behalf of all women will leave you inspired and energized for the next year of resistance.
Read the quotes below and take them to heart. They can serve as inspiration and guidance as you participate in the Women's March and throughout your daily life. Women like Shirley Chisholm, Maya Angelou, Angela Davis, and Assata Shakur are full of wisdom; their words are just as poignant and needed in 2018 as the day they first said them. Speaking out and using your voice to uplift others is a powerful, revolutionary act. Who knows? Maybe 50 years from now a young woman will be inspired to write your words on a protest sign.
1
"If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair."
2
"Nobody's free until everybody's free."
3
"If you are silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it."
4
"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."
5
"Women are powerful and dangerous."
— Audre Lorde, poet
6
"Feminism is for everybody."
7
"I'm rooting for everybody Black."
8
"We are the ones we've been waiting for."
9
"If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back."
10
"It's important, therefore, to know who the real enemy is, and to know the function of racism, which is distraction."
11
"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."
12
"The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class — it is the cause of human kind, the very birthright of humanity."
13
"Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of people who were oppressing them."
14
"You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Your life belongs to you and you alone.”
15
"Differences of race, nationality, or religion should not be used to deny any human being citizenship rights or privileges."
16
"You have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars, to change the world."
17
"If we aren’t intersectional, some of us, the most vulnerable, are going to fall through the cracks."
— Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, professor
18
"It is impossible to shame a woman who is unashamed."
19
"I am here. I am whole. I am able."
20
"Take up the battle. Take it up. It's yours. This is your life. This is your world."
21
"Reclaiming my time."
22
"No matter where you are from, your dreams are valid.”
23
“Who run the world? Girls.”
24
"I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act."
25
“No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half its citizens.”
26
“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
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