Quotes from Benjamin Hooks

A good history covers not only what was done, but the thought that went into the action. You can read the history of a country through its actions.

If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk.

At that time you were insulted by law clerks, excluded from white bar associations and when I was in court, I was lucky to be called Ben, usually it was just 'boy.' [But] the judges were always fair. The discrimination of those days has changed and, today, the South is ahead of the North in many respects in civil rights progress.

Black Americans are not defeated, the civil rights movement is not dead. If anyone thinks that we are going to stop agitating, they had better think again. If anyone thinks that we are going to stop litigating, they had better close the courts. If anyone thinks that we are not going to demonstrate and protest, they had better roll up the sidewalks.

There are a lot of ways an oppressed people can rise. One way to rise is to study, to be smarter than your oppressor. The concept of rising against oppression through physical contact is stupid and self-defeating. It exalts brawn over brain. And the most enduring contributions made to civilization have not been made by brawn, they have been made by brain.

We've been through some little stormy periods before. I think we'll overcome it.

Black men who have succeeded have an obligation to serve as role models for young men entrapped by a vicious cycle of poverty, despair, and hopelessness.