H. Rap Brown Quotations

I seek truth over a lie; I seek justice over injustice; I seek righteousness over the rewards of evildoers, and I love Allah more than I love the state.

They cannot divide us by saying that you're middle class or you're lower class.

There's no such thing as second class citizenship. That's like telling me you can be a little bit pregnant.

Look at the newborn baby. It struggles to breathe after living in the womb. And yet, growth comes as a result of struggle. Even when we talk about jihad. We need to attach consciousness to struggle. This struggle has to be both individual and collective.

To be successful in struggle requires remembrance of the Creator and the doing of good deeds. This is important because successful struggle demands that there be a kind of social consciousness. There has to be a social commitment, a social consciousness that joins men together.

Revolution comes when human beings set out to correct decadent institutions.

The first responsibility of the Muslim is as teacher. That is his job, to teach. His first school, his first classroom is within the household. His first student is himself. He masters himself and then he begins to convey the knowledge that he has acquired to the family. The people who are closest to him.

My name is Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, the former H. Rap Brown. I am a devoted servant of Allah, and an unwavering devotee to His cause. For more than 30 years, I have been tormented and persecuted by my enemies for reasons of race and belief.

But black people fall for that same argument, and they go around talking about law breakers. We did not make the laws in this country. We are neither morally nor legally confined to those laws. Those laws that keep them up, keep us down.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

The man does not beat your head because you got a Cadillac or because you got a Ford; he beats you because you're black!

Attack those concepts such as 'third world.' Think about it. If we look at it in terms of numbers, then people of color are the majority in this world. We should be the 'first world.'

Everybody in the black community must organize, and then we decide whether we will have alliance with other people or not, but not until we are organized.

We happen to be the vanguard of that revolutionary struggle because we are the most dispossessed.

See, it's no in between: you're either free or you're a slave.

And understand: class differences will not save you.

See, justice is a joke in this country, and it stinks of its hypocricy.

The only politics in this country that's relevant to black people today is the politics of revolution... none other.

When you understand your obligations to God then you can understand your obligations to society.

Yes, politics IS war without bloodshed; and war is an extension of those politics.

If America don't come around, we're gonna' burn it down.

Black people must address itself to the causes of poverty. That's oppression in this country.

There has to be a social commitment, a social consciousness that joins men together. On the basis of their coming together, they do not transgress against themselves and they do not transgress against others.

You've got to stop dividing yourselves. You got to organize.

One of the lies that we tell ourselves is that we're making progress; but Huey's chair's empty.

So black people all across this country are uniting. They must unite, and they must organize themselves.

In terms of the revolution, I believe that the revolution will be a revolution of dispossessed people in this country: that's the Mexican American, the Puerto Rican American, the American Indian, and black people.

An old African leader says about leadership, he says that leadership should never be shared; it should always remain in the hands of the dispossessed people. We will lead the revolution.

The poverty program was not designed to eliminate poverty.

There is no such thing as a black middle class.

Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford.

The only thing that's going to free Huey is gun powder.

We talking about revolution because that's the era that you're caught in.

You see, the poverty program for the last five years have been buy-off programs.

You cannot legislate an attitude.

I consider myself neither legally nor morally bound to obey the laws made by a body in which I have no representation.

You must begin to define yourself. You must begin to define your Black heritage.

Being a man is the continuing battle for one's life. One loses a bit of manhood with every stale compromise to the authority of any power in which one does not believe.

This is a very unforgiving country when you show this country its warts, when you hold the mirror up. If you happen not to share their beliefs, they'll kill you.

Individuals do not create rebellions; conditions do.

I say violence is necessary. Violence is a part of America's culture. It is as American as cherry pie. Americans taught the black people to be violent. We will use that violence to rid ourselves of oppression if necessary. We will be free, by any means necessary.