Quote of the Day: Billie Holiday on Enslavement

You can read this quote from Billie Holiday, from her book Lady Sings the Blues (1956), in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read the quote in its full context here. Suggested Reading Books By Black Authors We Can’t Wait to Read in April 2026 Black Nurse Details Terror, Heroism After Plane Crash on LaGuardia Runway Brandy Reveals Her Last Conversation With…

You can read this quote from Billie Holiday, from her book Lady Sings the Blues (1956), in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read the quote in its full context here.

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Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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