Fourth of July is upon us and it’s fair to say that getting in the mood to celebrate America’s birthday has been challenging. With reproductive rights being stripped from women across the US, LGBTQ rights on the chopping block, Trans Lives under attack and even access to contraceptives in question, it makes sense that one would want to sit this 4th of July out, but I want to encourage you to embrace your patriotism and use it to reinvigorate your fight for equality and human rights. Your passion for human rights is needed! If you need a little help getting in the mood, don’t worry, I got your back. I’ve pulled together some Independence Day quotes and 4th of July Quotes that fit the mood of the time and will hopefully inspire you to stay in the fight.
Independence Day Quotes that Fight the Patriarchy
Who ever walked behind anyone to freedom? If we can’t go hand in hand, I don’t want to go. ―Hazel Scott
I always hated the Fourth of July even before I realized what a travesty such a celebration was for Black people living in this country. ―Audre Lorde
“We know the road to freedom has always been stalked by death.” ― Angela Davis
“We made this land even though we have not been given recognition” ―Representative Shirley Chishom
Those who stand for nothing, fall for anything. ―Alexander Hailton
“We only want, we only ask, that when we stand up and talk about one nation under God, liberty, justice for everybody, we only want to be able to look at the flag, put our right hand over our hearts, repeat those words and know that they are true.” ―Barbara Jordan
“We will shape and mold this country or it will not be molded and shaped at all anymore.”―Nina Simone
“No, I’m not an American. I’m one of 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the … victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver – no, not I! I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare!” ― Malcom X
“Nobody is free, until everybody is free.” ―Civil Rights Leader Fannie Lou Hame
“The greatest statement of equality is in the Declaration of Independence, written by a slaveholder.” —Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“My dissenting opinions, like my briefs, are meant to persuade. And sometimes one must be forceful about saying how wrong the Court is.” —Ruth Bader Ginsburg
We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. —William Faulkner
“The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.” —Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”—Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“To be free is not to have the power to do anything you like; it is to be able to surpass the given toward an open future.” —Simone de Beauvoir
“I’d like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free and wanted other people to be also free.”—Simone de Beauvoir
“Men should think twice before making widowhood women’s only path to power.”
― Gloria Steinem
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like me, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. ―Thomas Paine
“Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie.”
― Gloria Steinem
Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life. -John F. Kennedy
“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.”
― Marie Shear
“Forty-two years after Dr. King was murdered, we are still a nation of inequality. People of color, women, gays, lesbians, and others are still treated as second-class citizens. Yes, things have changed but we have still not achieved equality among all humans. And nonhuman animals continue to be chattel property without any inherent value.”
― Gary L. Francione
“Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and un-purchasable voice in government.” — Carrie Chapman Catt, American women’s suffrage leader
“It is not gender which is destroying our culture…. it is our interpretations of culture which has destroyed gender equality.” – A Cambodian civil society group
“Women’s chains have been forged by men, not by anatomy.” –Estelle R. Ramey, American endocrinologist and psychologist
“If society will not admit of women’s free development, then society must be remodeled.” ― Elizabeth Blackwell
