Till Victory Is Won
Simon & Schuster, 2002
This book takes its title from the moving lyrics of the official song of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, "Lift Every Voice and Sing." Till Victory Is Won: Famous Black Quotations From the NAACP
Focusing on five major topics--Protecting Civil Rights, Achieving Educational Excellence, Nurturing Economic Development, Reaching Youth, and Gaining Political Power--this extraordinary anthology inspires and informs.
Among those included are: Maya Angelou, Arthur Ashe, Ella Baker, James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Mary McLeod Bethune, Johnnie Cochran, W.E.B. Du Bois, Duke Ellington, Danny Glover, Thurgood Marshall, Toni Morrison, Quincy Jones, Vernon Jordan, Rosa Parks, August Wilson, and Oprah Winfrey.
While researching this book, I was deeply moved by the courage of countless NAACP members who have put their lives and livelihoods on the line--Walter White investigating lynchings, Septima Clark sticking to her principles and losing her career, Medgar Evers registering voters in Mississippi and losing his life....I read about Du Bois's unyielding defiance of anyone who would deny him his "full manhood rights" in an era when blacks were lynched regularly with impunity. Then there was eventual U.S. Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall tirelessly traveling the country to defend black folk in malevolent courtrooms and not being certain if he would get home alive.
I was astonished to learn that it was a woman (Mary White Ovington) who brought the passion and indignation of DuBois, William Monroe Trotter, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett of the all-black Niagara Movement together with the money and influence of the all-white National Negro Committee....The two groups essentially merged to form the NAACP.
"Despite the seriousness of the central subject, not all the material is grim--or even challenging. Much of it is inspirational--these words come, after all, from a story of the steady triumph of right over wrong. Some of these are angry words--but anger is a proper emotion to bring to this fight. Some of the words are humorous--laughter is a frequently employed weapon than can win, and wound. And some are musical, lyrical--prose poetry from singers without any instrument except their voices or pens, and their minds."
