Mildred D. Taylor - Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976)

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She grabbed his arm. "Let it be, son!" she cried. "That child ain't hurt!" "Not hurt! You look into her eyes and tell me she ain't hurt!

Mildred D. Taylor
There are things you can't back down on, things you gotta take a stand on. But it's up to you to decide what them things are. You have to demand respect in this world, ain't nobody just gonna hand it to you. How you carry yourself, what you stand for—that's how you gain respect. But, little one, ain't nobody's respect worth more than your own.

Mildred D. Taylor
There were too many ears that listened for others besides themselves, and too many tongues that wagged to those they shouldn't.

Mildred D. Taylor
Baby, we have no choice of what color we're born or who our parents are or whether we're rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we're here.

Mildred D. Taylor
Far as I'm concerned, friendship between black and white don't mean that much 'cause it usually ain't on a equal basis.... Maybe one day whites and blacks can be real friends, but right now the country ain't built that way.

Mildred D. Taylor
White is something just like black is something. Everybody born on this earth is something, and nobody, no matter what color, is better than anybody else.

Mildred D. Taylor
We Logans don't have much to do with white folks. You know why? 'Cause white folks mean trouble.

Mildred D. Taylor
These are things they need to hear, baby. It's their history.

Mildred D. Taylor
I learned a history not then written in books but one passed from generation to generation on the steps of moonlit porches and beside dying fires in one-room houses, a history of great-grandparents and of slavery and of the days following slavery; of those who lived still not free, yet who would not let their spirits be enslaved.

Mildred D. Taylor
What had happened to T.J. in the night I did not understand, but I knew that it would not pass. And I cried for those things which had happened in the night and would not pass. I cried for T.J. For T.J. and the land.

Mildred D. Taylor
I'm a Southerner, born and bred, but that doesn't mean I approve of all that goes on here, and there are a lot of other white people who feel the same.

Mildred D. Taylor