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The only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense.

— Ida B. Wells

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Guns

More quotes by Ida B. Wells

The mob spirit has grown with the increasing intelligence of the Afro-American.

The nineteenth century lynching mob cuts off ears, toes, and fingers, strips off flesh, and distributes portions of the body as souvenirs among the crowd.

Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought (1995)

A Winchester Rifle should have a place of honor in every black home.

There is nothing we can do about the lynching now, as we are out-numbered and without arms.

During the slave regime, the Southern white man owned the Negro body and soul. It was to his interest to dwarf the soul and preserve the body.

The Red Record (1895)

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From the first I saw no chance of bettering the condition of the freedman until he should cease to be merely a freedman and should become a citizen.

Frederick Douglass The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892)

The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy.

Edward Abbey Abbey's Road (1979)

Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Mao Zedong

Guns will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat.

Hermann Göring Radio broadcast (1936)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ida B. Wells (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.