--- title: "4 Black lives matter Quotes By Jesmyn Ward" description: "4 Black lives matter quotes by Jesmyn Ward. Plus more from Jesmyn Ward and more Black lives matter sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/651/jesmyn-ward-1426_african-american_it-is-as-if-we-have-reentered-the-past-a_550115.png" --- > [“It is as if we have reentered the past and are living in a second Nadir: It seems the rate of police…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/it-is-as-if-we-have-reentered-the-past-and-are-living-in-a-second/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/651/jesmyn-ward-1426_african-american_it-is-as-if-we-have-reentered-the-past-a_550115.png) > [“First, it confirmed how inextricably interwoven the past is in the present, how heavily that past bears on the future; we cannot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/first-it-confirmed-how-inextricably-interwoven-the-past-is-in-the/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/515/jesmyn-ward-1426_black-lives-matter_first-it-confirmed-how-inextricably-inte_1049803.png) > [I am grateful to the activists and women who created the Black Lives Matter movement because I feel like they let me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-am-grateful-to-the-activists-and-women-who-created-the-black-lives/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba5/jesmyn-ward-1426_activists_i-am-grateful-to-the-activists-and-women_1765722.png) > [“But race in the United States is not a tidy matter. Only three of the submitted pieces explicitly referenced the future. Most…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/but-race-in-the-united-states-is-not-a-tidy-matter-only-three-of-the/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/027/jesmyn-ward-1426_african-americans_but-race-in-the-united-states-is-not-a-t_1840577.png) ## Other authors on Black lives matter - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b002/author-patrisse-cullors-5946.jpg) Patrisse Cullors 21 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black-lives-matter/patrisse-cullors/) - [Alicia Garza 15 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black-lives-matter/alicia-garza/) - [Opal Tometi 9 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black-lives-matter/opal-tometi/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-milo-yiannopoulos-1925.jpg) Milo Yiannopoulos 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black-lives-matter/milo-yiannopoulos/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-abhijit-naskar-99.jpg) Abhijit Naskar 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black-lives-matter/abhijit-naskar/) ## More by Jesmyn Ward > [I wanted to write about voodoo tradition that I feel has been very important to survival of black people here: people of the African…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-wanted-to-write-about-voodoo-tradition-that-i-feel-has-been-very/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [I think that voodoo as a spiritual tradition has been demonized for so long in popular culture. I wanted to write against that and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-think-that-voodoo-as-a-spiritual-tradition-has-been-demonized-for/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [There's so much I love about home, but then there's a lot that I can acknowledge that I dislike about home. And acknowledging that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/there-s-so-much-i-love-about-home-but-then-there-s-a-lot-that-i-can/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [“The dream of her was the glow of a spent fire on a cold night: warm and welcoming.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/the-dream-of-her-was-the-glow-of-a-spent-fire-on-a-cold-night-warm/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [The first writer that I think of immediately that I studied with at Michigan is Peter Ho Davies. He was really important to me,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/the-first-writer-that-i-think-of-immediately-that-i-studied-with-at/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [I feel like so much of what happened in the Delta over the decades since slavery was abolished seems much closer in the Delta,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-feel-like-so-much-of-what-happened-in-the-delta-over-the-decades/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [“Vines catch my arms, my head; we tear through until we break out into the clearing before the fence, the field, the barn, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/vines-catch-my-arms-my-head-we-tear-through-until-we-break-out-into/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [“Before all the little mean things she told me gathered and gathered and lodged like grit in a skinned knee.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/before-all-the-little-mean-things-she-told-me-gathered-and-gathered/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [People give the South a bad rap. It's often stereotyped as backwards and close-minded and dogmatic, and all of those things have been true.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/people-give-the-south-a-bad-rap-it-s-often-stereotyped-as-backwards/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [By the time I wrote my memoir, 'Men We Reaped,' I had been running from writing it for a long time. When the events…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/by-the-time-i-wrote-my-memoir-men-we-reaped-i-had-been-running-from/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [When I was a teenager, I was the only black girl at a small, private Episcopal school, where my tuition was paid by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/when-i-was-a-teenager-i-was-the-only-black-girl-at-a-small-private/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [She was the murderous mother who cut us to the bone but left us alive, left us naked and bewildered as wrinkled newborn babies,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/she-was-the-murderous-mother-who-cut-us-to-the-bone-but-left-us-alive/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [I hope people who read my books feel empathy for us and really see us as complicated people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-hope-people-who-read-my-books-feel-empathy-for-us-and-really-see-us/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [When I was writing my first novel, 'Where the Line Bleeds,' which had young black men as its main characters, I was very invested…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/when-i-was-writing-my-first-novel-where-the-line-bleeds-which-had/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) > [“Lot of folks was in there for stealing food because everybody was poor and starving, and even though White people couldn’t get your work…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/lot-of-folks-was-in-there-for-stealing-food-because-everybody-was/) [Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black-lives-matter/jesmyn-ward/#itemlist", "name": "4 Black lives matter Quotes By Jesmyn Ward", "numberOfItems": 4, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“It is as if we have reentered the past and are living in a second Nadir: It seems the rate of police killings now surpasses the rate of lynchings during the worst decades of the Jim Crow era. 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