Frederick Douglass — "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

"I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed…"

"A man's rights are not to be determined by the color of his skin, or in any other way than by the measure of his manhood."

"I am not here to argue with you, but to tell you what I know."

"I have had but one idea for the last three years, to present the Negro as a man, and to demand his rights as a man."

"The destiny of the colored American, however, is not a question for the colored people themselves, but for the American people at large."