--- title: "10 Black Quotes By June Jordan" description: "10 Black quotes by June Jordan. Plus more from June Jordan and more Black sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c66/june-jordan-5050_america_body-and-soul-black-america-reveals-the_344153.png" --- > [Body and soul, Black America reveals the extreme questions of contemporary life, questions of freedom and identity: How can I be who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/body-and-soul-black-america-reveals-the-extreme-questions-of/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c66/june-jordan-5050_america_body-and-soul-black-america-reveals-the_344153.png) > [Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/like-a-lot-of-black-women-i-have-always-had-to-invent-the-power-my/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e56/june-jordan-5050_african-american_like-a-lot-of-black-women-i-have-always_1956551.png) > [I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/i-am-a-feminist-and-what-that-means-to-me-is-much-the-same-as-the/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1f/june-jordan-5050_black_i-am-a-feminist-and-what-that-means-to-m_1654326.png) > [We need everybody and all that we are. We need to know and make known the complete, constantly unfolding, complicated heritage that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/we-need-everybody-and-all-that-we-are-we-need-to-know-and-make-known/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c92/june-jordan-5050_black_we-need-everybody-and-all-that-we-are-we_2081791.png) > [In America, you can segregate the people, but the problems will travel. From slavery to equal rights, from state suppression of dissent…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/in-america-you-can-segregate-the-people-but-the-problems-will-travel/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/984/june-jordan-5050_america_in-america-you-can-segregate-the-people_61323.png) > [In America, the traditional routes to black identity have hardly been normal. Suicide (disappearance by imitation, or willed extinction), violence (hysterical religiosity,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/in-america-the-traditional-routes-to-black-identity-have-hardly-been/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a4/june-jordan-5050_america_in-america-the-traditional-routes-to-bla_2993883.jpg) > [As a poet and writer, I deeply love and I deeply hate words. I love the infinite evidence and change and requirements…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/as-a-poet-and-writer-i-deeply-love-and-i-deeply-hate-words-i-love-the/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/350/june-jordan-5050_america_as-a-poet-and-writer-i-deeply-love-and-i_956938.jpg) > [There is a man who exists as one of the most popular objects of leadership, legislation, and quasi-literature in the history of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/there-is-a-man-who-exists-as-one-of-the-most-popular-objects-of/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/251/june-jordan-5050_activity_there-is-a-man-who-exists-as-one-of-the_933173.jpg) > [Lately... Americans have begun to understand that trouble does not start somewhere on the other side of town. It seems to originate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/lately-americans-have-begun-to-understand-that-trouble-does-not-start/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f35/june-jordan-5050_absolutes_lately-americans-have-begun-to-understan_1829883.png) > [When that devil's bullet lodged itself inside the body of Martin Luther King, he had already begun an astonishing mobilization of poor,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/when-that-devil-s-bullet-lodged-itself-inside-the-body-of-martin/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c78/june-jordan-5050_action_when-that-devil-s-bullet-lodged-itself-i_2779203.png) ## Other authors on Black ## More by June Jordan > [But, based on my friendship with Evie as young mothers, I started going on freedom rides in 1966.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/but-based-on-my-friendship-with-evie-as-young-mothers-i-started-going/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [I am working never to be late again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/i-am-working-never-to-be-late-again/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that's political, in its most profound way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/to-tell-the-truth-is-to-become-beautiful-to-begin-to-love-yourself/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [In America, you can segregate the people, but the problems will travel. From slavery to equal rights, from state suppression of dissent to crime,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/in-america-you-can-segregate-the-people-but-the-problems-will-travel/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [We survive our love because we go on loving.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/we-survive-our-love-because-we-go-on-loving/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [Americans have begun to understand that trouble does not start somewhere on the other side of town. It seems to originate inside the absolute…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/americans-have-begun-to-understand-that-trouble-does-not-start/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [The United States Supreme Court, once a reliable if ultimate recourse for progressive and even revolutionary grievances, has become a retrograde wellspring for enormous…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/the-united-states-supreme-court-once-a-reliable-if-ultimate-recourse/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [My father was very intense, passionate and over-the-top. He was my hero and my tyrant.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/my-father-was-very-intense-passionate-and-over-the-top-he-was-my-hero/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [The purpose of polite behavior is never virtuous. Deceit, surrender, and concealment these are not virtues. The goal of the mannerly is comfort, per…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/the-purpose-of-polite-behavior-is-never-virtuous-deceit-surrender-and/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [“the motivation behind every sentence is the wish to say something real to somebody real.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/the-motivation-behind-every-sentence-is-the-wish-to-say-something/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [Bisexuality means I am free and I am as likely to want to love a woman as I am likely to want to love…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/bisexuality-means-i-am-free-and-i-am-as-likely-to-want-to-love-a/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [“...love without being destroyed...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/love-without-being-destroyed/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [Body and soul, Black America reveals the extreme questions of contemporary life, questions of freedom and identity: How can I be who I am?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/body-and-soul-black-america-reveals-the-extreme-questions-of/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [South Africa used to seem so far away. Then it came home to me. It began to signify the meaning of white hatred here.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/south-africa-used-to-seem-so-far-away-then-it-came-home-to-me-it/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) > [The thing about genius is it will never yield to circumstances. Genius regards what's given as the beginning of its need to find or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/the-thing-about-genius-is-it-will-never-yield-to-circumstances-genius/) [June Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/june-jordan/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black/june-jordan/#itemlist", "name": "10 Black Quotes By June Jordan", "numberOfItems": 10, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Body and soul, Black America reveals the extreme questions of contemporary life, questions of freedom and identity: How can I be who I am?", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "June Jordan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/body-and-soul-black-america-reveals-the-extreme-questions-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c66/june-jordan-5050_america_body-and-soul-black-america-reveals-the_344153.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c66/june-jordan-5050_america_body-and-soul-black-america-reveals-the_344153.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c66/june-jordan-5050_america_body-and-soul-black-america-reveals-the_344153.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Body and soul, Black America reveals the extreme questions of contemporary life, questions of freedom and…” — June Jordan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "June Jordan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/like-a-lot-of-black-women-i-have-always-had-to-invent-the-power-my/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e56/june-jordan-5050_african-american_like-a-lot-of-black-women-i-have-always_1956551.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e56/june-jordan-5050_african-american_like-a-lot-of-black-women-i-have-always_1956551.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e56/june-jordan-5050_african-american_like-a-lot-of-black-women-i-have-always_1956551.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Like a lot of Black women, I have always had to invent the power my freedom requires.” — June Jordan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "June Jordan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/i-am-a-feminist-and-what-that-means-to-me-is-much-the-same-as-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1f/june-jordan-5050_black_i-am-a-feminist-and-what-that-means-to-m_1654326.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1f/june-jordan-5050_black_i-am-a-feminist-and-what-that-means-to-m_1654326.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1f/june-jordan-5050_black_i-am-a-feminist-and-what-that-means-to-m_1654326.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it…” — June Jordan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "We need everybody and all that we are. We need to know and make known the complete, constantly unfolding, complicated heritage that is our black experience. We should absolutely resist the superstar, one at a time mentality that threatens the varied and resilient, flexible wealth of our Black future.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "June Jordan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/we-need-everybody-and-all-that-we-are-we-need-to-know-and-make-known/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c92/june-jordan-5050_black_we-need-everybody-and-all-that-we-are-we_2081791.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c92/june-jordan-5050_black_we-need-everybody-and-all-that-we-are-we_2081791.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c92/june-jordan-5050_black_we-need-everybody-and-all-that-we-are-we_2081791.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“We need everybody and all that we are. 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From slavery to equal rights, from state suppression of dissent to crime, drugs and unemployment, I can't think of a supposedly Black issue that hasn't wasted the original Black target group and then spread like measles to outlying white experience.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "June Jordan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/in-america-you-can-segregate-the-people-but-the-problems-will-travel/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/984/june-jordan-5050_america_in-america-you-can-segregate-the-people_61323.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/984/june-jordan-5050_america_in-america-you-can-segregate-the-people_61323.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/984/june-jordan-5050_america_in-america-you-can-segregate-the-people_61323.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In America, you can segregate the people, but the problems will travel. 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Suicide (disappearance by imitation, or willed extinction), violence (hysterical religiosity, crime, armed revolt), and exemplary moral courage; none of these is normal.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "June Jordan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/in-america-the-traditional-routes-to-black-identity-have-hardly-been/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a4/june-jordan-5050_america_in-america-the-traditional-routes-to-bla_2993883.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a4/june-jordan-5050_america_in-america-the-traditional-routes-to-bla_2993883.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a4/june-jordan-5050_america_in-america-the-traditional-routes-to-bla_2993883.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In America, the traditional routes to black identity have hardly been normal. Suicide (disappearance by…” — June Jordan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "As a poet and writer, I deeply love and I deeply hate words. I love the infinite evidence and change and requirements and possibilities of language; every human use of words that is joyful, or honest or new, because experience is new... But as a Black poet and writer, I hate words that cancel my name and my history and the freedom of my future: I hate the words that condemn and refuse the language of my people in America.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "June Jordan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/as-a-poet-and-writer-i-deeply-love-and-i-deeply-hate-words-i-love-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/350/june-jordan-5050_america_as-a-poet-and-writer-i-deeply-love-and-i_956938.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/350/june-jordan-5050_america_as-a-poet-and-writer-i-deeply-love-and-i_956938.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/350/june-jordan-5050_america_as-a-poet-and-writer-i-deeply-love-and-i_956938.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“As a poet and writer, I deeply love and I deeply hate words. I love the infinite evidence and change and…” — June Jordan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "There is a man who exists as one of the most popular objects of leadership, legislation, and quasi-literature in the history of all men. . . . This man, that object of attention, attack, and vast activity, cannot make himself be heard, let alone understood. He has never been listened to. . . . That man is Black and alive in white America where the media of communication do not allow the delivery of his own voice, his own desires, his own rage.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "June Jordan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/there-is-a-man-who-exists-as-one-of-the-most-popular-objects-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/251/june-jordan-5050_activity_there-is-a-man-who-exists-as-one-of-the_933173.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/251/june-jordan-5050_activity_there-is-a-man-who-exists-as-one-of-the_933173.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/251/june-jordan-5050_activity_there-is-a-man-who-exists-as-one-of-the_933173.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“There is a man who exists as one of the most popular objects of leadership, legislation, and…” — June Jordan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Lately... Americans have begun to understand that trouble does not start somewhere on the other side of town. It seems to originate inside the absolute middle of the homemade cherry pie. In our history, the state has failed to respond to the weak. You could be white, male, Presbyterian and heterosexual besides, but if you get fired or if you get sick tomorrow, you might as well be Black, for all the state will want to hear from you.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "June Jordan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/lately-americans-have-begun-to-understand-that-trouble-does-not-start/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f35/june-jordan-5050_absolutes_lately-americans-have-begun-to-understan_1829883.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f35/june-jordan-5050_absolutes_lately-americans-have-begun-to-understan_1829883.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f35/june-jordan-5050_absolutes_lately-americans-have-begun-to-understan_1829883.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Lately... Americans have begun to understand that trouble does not start somewhere on the other side of…” — June Jordan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "When that devil's bullet lodged itself inside the body of Martin Luther King, he had already begun an astonishing mobilization of poor, Black, white, latino Americans who had nothing to lose. They would challenge our government to eliminate exploitative, merciless, and war-mongering policies, nationwide, or else \"tie up the country\" through \"means of civil disobedience.\" Dr. King intended to organize those legions into \"coercive direct actions\" that would make of Babylon a dysfunctional behemoth begging for relief. Is it any wonder he was killed?", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "June Jordan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/june-jordan/when-that-devil-s-bullet-lodged-itself-inside-the-body-of-martin/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c78/june-jordan-5050_action_when-that-devil-s-bullet-lodged-itself-i_2779203.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c78/june-jordan-5050_action_when-that-devil-s-bullet-lodged-itself-i_2779203.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c78/june-jordan-5050_action_when-that-devil-s-bullet-lodged-itself-i_2779203.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“When that devil's bullet lodged itself inside the body of Martin Luther King, he had already begun an…” — June Jordan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black/june-jordan/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black/june-jordan/", "name": "Black Quotes by June Jordan", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/black/june-jordan/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c66/june-jordan-5050_america_body-and-soul-black-america-reveals-the_344153.png" }, "description": "10 Black quotes by June Jordan. 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