55 Powerful Juneteenth Quotes About Freedom, History, and Hope
Some dates carry more weight than others.
June 19th is one of them. It marks the moment when the last enslaved people in America finally heard the words that should have reached them years earlier.
That delay says a lot. So does the celebration that followed.
These Juneteenth quotes capture what that day meant then, and what it still means now.
Short Juneteenth Quotes
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” — Frederick Douglass
“Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.” — Coretta Scott King
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” — Toni Morrison
“I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive.” — Harriet Tubman
“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” — Fannie Lou Hamer
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” — Langston Hughes
“The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” — W.E.B. Du Bois
“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” — Frederick Douglass
“Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory or an acceptance of the way things are. It’s a celebration of progress. It’s an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, change is possible — and there is still so much work to do.” — Barack Obama
“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” — Desmond Tutu
“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.” — James Baldwin
“I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” — Frederick Douglass
“None of us are free until we’re all free.” — Opal Lee
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” — Maya Angelou
“Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own and none can keep it from them.” — Kwame Nkrumah
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: ‘I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.'” — Maya Angelou
“There’s no such thing as part freedom.” — Nelson Mandela
“My people’s memory is longer than the road that stretches ahead.” — Toni Morrison
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.” — Harriet Tubman
“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” — James Baldwin
“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free, so other people would be also free.” — Rosa Parks
“You must never, ever give out. We must keep the faith because we are one people. We are brothers and sisters. We all live in the same house: the American house.” — John Lewis
“If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on.” — Barack Obama
“You can’t separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” — Malcolm X
“We have a beautiful history, and we shall create another in the future that will astonish the world.” — Marcus Garvey
“The practice of alchemizing suffering into meaningful art as well as social and political advancements has been one of African Americans’ greatest gifts to humanity.” — Clint Smith
“If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.” — Toni Morrison
“There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.” — Michelle Obama
“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” — Harriet Tubman
“Emancipation is not the end of our freedom. It is only the beginning.” — Thurgood Marshall
“We must always be a strong presence, an unrelenting force working for equality and justice until the freedom gates are fully open.” — Dorothy Height
“The pursuit of justice is all I have ever known.” — Harry Belafonte
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” — Nelson Mandela
“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
“It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.” — Malcolm X
“Let us never forget that Black history continues to define American history.” — Yvette D. Clarke
“Won’t it be wonderful when Black history and Native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.” — Maya Angelou
“What I love about Juneteenth is that even in that extended wait, we still find something to celebrate. Even though the story has never been tidy, and Black folks have had to march and fight for every inch of our freedom, our story is nonetheless one of progress.” — Clint Smith
“Now I’ve been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is.” — Harriet Tubman
“The truth is powerful, and it prevails.” — Sojourner Truth
“Black liberation has never just been about Black people. It’s been about a fight for our humanity, for our dignity.” — Harry Belafonte
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Juneteenth may mark just one moment in the struggle for emancipation, but the holiday gives us an occasion to reflect on the profound contributions of enslaved Black Americans to the cause of human freedom.” — Jamelle Bouie
“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise.” — Maya Angelou
“We are going to get out here and get something done. We have to wake up, America.” — Gwen Carr
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” — Angela Davis
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” — Hebrews 11:1
“Today on Juneteenth, the day we celebrate the end of slavery, the day we memorialize those who offered us hope for the future and the day when we renew our commitment to the struggle for freedom.” — Angela Davis
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” — Angela Davis
