Shaking like a leaf? Not these folks!

 

My father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I’m going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear?

Paul Robeson (1898-1976)
testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, June 12, 1956

That… man… says women can’t have as much rights as man, cause Christ wasn’t a woman. Where did your Christ come from? . . . From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him.

Sojourner Truth (1797?-1883)
speech at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, 1851

I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or rat in a trap. I had already determined to sell my life as dearly as possible if attacked. I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit.

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)
Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells (published posthumously, 1970)

What’s shaking, chiefy baby?

Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
customary greeting to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, quoted by Michael D. Davis and Hunter R. Clark in Thurgood Marshall: Warrior at the Bar, Rebel on the Bench (1992)