20th century Quote by William Labov

Slavery is not African history. Slavery interrupted African history.

— Mutabaruka

We have inherited a fear of memories of slavery. It is as if to remember and acknowledge slavery would amount to our being consumed…

— Angela Davis

However, research in the years that followed found that in many of its important features, African American Vernacular English was becoming not less, but…

— William Labov

It is only with the rise of the Civil Rights Movement that you begin to see different examinations of not only Reconstruction but slavery…

— Gerald Horne

The thing is, so much of the African American experience is about the redefinition of roots because of slavery. We were uprooted, and there's…

— Cheo Hodari Coker

Since the nations founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die but then…

— Michelle Alexander

American chattel slavery was practically defined by the fundamental instability of Black families. The institution rested on the expropriation of the reproductive capacities of…

— Jamelle Bouie

In a lot of movies, African-Americans are either maids or slaves, but that's not all they were. We need to show that. And we…

— Allison Schroeder

My writing is definitely influenced by and speaks to African-Americans because that is who I am. I'm black. I'm a black woman. I'm a…

— Michelle Singletary

Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but because they were available. Slavery has existed in the world for thousands of years. Whites…

— Thomas Sowell

We incarcerate more African-American men today than were slaves in 1850.

— Marianne Williamson

This African American Vernacular English shares most of its grammar and vocabulary with other dialects of English. But it is distinct in many ways,…

— William Labov