35 John Henrik Clarke Quotes From The African-American Historian And Pioneer Figure

Dr. John Henrik Clarke was a pan-Africanist historian and writer.

As an African-American, John Henrik Clarke faced a lot of racist brutalities until he decided to tolerate no more. He strongly pursued activism and continued to educate people about their equal rights.

Clarke stood out as one of the most prominent and truly educated intellectuals in the Black Power Movement referring to his experiences of life. Later he became the pioneer in making African studies famous in academia. In his professional life, Clarke taught in Hunter College and Cornell University along with writing a great number of scholarly books and articles. Check out some of his most famous quotes.

If you like this article on  quotes then check out Civil Rights quotes and Stokely Carmichael quotes.
 

Here are some Dr. John Henrik Clarke Quotes that will educate us about the rich African history.

1. "The first light of human consciousness and the world’s first civilizations were in Africa."

- John Henrik Clarke.

2. "After the rise and decline of Greek civilisation and the Roman destruction of the city of Carthage, they made one area of the conquered territories into a province which they called Africa, a word derived from 'afri' and the name of a group of people about whom little is known."

- John Henrik Clarke.

3. "The role of religions in the domination and destruction of African civilizations was ruthless… Islam was as guilty as all the rest."

- John Henrik Clarke.

4. "The slave ships brought only African people and most of us took the semblance of nationality from the places where slave ships dropped us off."  

- John Henrik Clarke.  

5. "The African man is the greatest fighting machine God ever created."

- John Henrik Clarke.

6. "Africa and its people are the most written about and the least understood of all of the world's people."

- John Henrik Clarke.

7. "The African man is the greatest fighting machine God ever created."

- John Henrik Clarke.

8. "Africa is our center of gravity, our cultural and spiritual mother and father, our beating heart, no matter where we live on the face of this earth.”

- John Henrik Clarke.

Every spiritual person is going to relate with these John Henrik Clarke Quotes.

9. "My main point here is that if you are the child of God and God is a part of you, the in your imagination God suppose to look like you."

- John Henrik Clarke.

10. "We have been educated into believing someone else's concept of the deity... You have the right to practice any religion and politics in a way that best suits your ... once you do that, you don't apologize."

- John Henrik Clarke.

11. "Religion is the organization of spirituality into something that became the handmaiden of ... by conquerors, and used as the framework to control their minds."

- John Henrik Clarke.

12. "To control a people you must ... regard their history and culture. And when your conqueror makes you ashamed of your culture and your history, he needs no prison walls and no chains to hold you."

- John Henrik Clarke.

13. "If we are going to be masters of our destiny, we must be masters of the ideas that influence that destiny."

- John Henrik Clarke.

The repetitive use of the term power in John Henrik Clarke Quotes encourages us to fight against all the wrongs in our lives.

14. "If you don't like the situation, if you are afraid and can't deal with it, nothing wrong with your legs, get out of there."

- John Henrik Clarke.

15. “Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power. You will take it.”

- John Henrik Clarke.

16. "Most human behavior is controlled by images, a major factor in world power."

- John Henrik Clarke.

17. "Education has but one honorable purpose, one alone, everything else is a waste of time... that is to train the student to be a proper handler of power."

- John Henrik Clarke.

18. "Whoever is in control of the hell in your life, is your devil."

- John Henrik Clarke.

These revolutionary Dr. John Henrik Clarke a mighty walk quotes will get you thinking about the ill treatment faced by Black people worldwide.

19. "Everything that touches you life, must be an instrument of your liberation or tossed into the trash cans of history"

- John Henrik Clarke.

20. "There was a time when all dark-skinned people were called 'Ethiopians', for the Greeks referred to Africa as 'the Land of the Burnt-face People'."

- John Henrik Clarke.

21. "African people need to stop shouting 'nationtime' until they are clear about the responsibilities of running a nation."

- John Henrik Clarke.

22."Slavery ended and left its false images of black people intact."

- John Henrik Clarke.

23. "White people think when you love yourself you hate them. No, when I love myself they become irrelevant to me."

- John Henrik Clarke.

24. "To be black and beautiful means nothing in this world unless we are black and powerful."

- John Henrik Clarke.

26. "The impact of racism has changed our look at ourselves because basically racism was meant to make us look unfaithfully at ourselves, and to not treasure our institutions."

- John Henrik Clarke.

27. “Racists will always call you a racist when you identify their racism. To love yourself now is a form of racism."

- John Henrik Clarke.

28. "If we don't unite, chances are we will go back into slavery."

- John Henrik Clarke.

29. "We must concentrate on where the slave ship picked us up."

- John Henrik Clarke.

Here are some iconic John Henrik Clarke quotes that you will certainly like.

30. "A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience's attention, then he can teach his lesson."

- John Henrik Clarke.

31. "Every form of true education trains the student in self-reliance.”

- John Henrik Clarke.

32. "Nothing the European mind ever devised was meant to do anything but to facilitate the European's control over the world.”

- John Henrik Clarke.

33. "What I have learned is that a whole lot of people with degrees don't know a damn thing, and a lot of people with no degrees are brilliant."

- John Henrik Clarke.

34. "History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day[...]It tells them where they are but, more importantly, what they must be."

- John Henrik Clarke.

35. "I only debate my equals. All others, I teach"  

- John Henrik Clarke.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for John Henrik Clarke quotes then why not take a look at Howard Thurman quotes, or Protest Quotes.