A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience's attention, then he can teach his lesson.

— John Henrik Clarke

Anytime someone says your God is ugly, and you release your God and join their God, there is no hope for your freedom until you once more believe in your own concept of the 'deity.'

— John Henrik Clarke

A people's relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother.

— John Henrik Clarke

History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are but, more importantly, what they must be.

— John Henrik Clarke

I am a nationalist, and a Pan-Africanist, first and foremost. I was well grounded in history before ever taking a history course. Furthermore, I did not spend much formal time in school - I had to work.

— John Henrik Clarke

I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday school lessons. I began to suspect at this early age that someone had distorted the image of my people. My long search for the true history of African people the world over began.

— John Henrik Clarke

It is unfortunate that so much of the history of Africa has been written by conquerors, foreigners, missionaries and adventurers. The Egyptians left the best record of their history written by local writers.

— John Henrik Clarke

My daddy wanted me to be a farmer; feel the smoothness of Alabama clay and become one of the first blacks in my town to own land. But, I was worried about my history being caked with that southern clay, and I subscribed to a different kind of teaching and learning in my bones and in my spirit.

— John Henrik Clarke

My loving sister Mary has always shared the pain and pleasure of my heartbeat in a unique and special way. We have sung our sad and warm songs together.

— John Henrik Clarke

My main point here is that if you are the child of God and God is a part of you, the in your imagination God suppose to look like you. And when you accept a picture of the deity assigned to you by another people, you become the spiritual prisoners of that other people.

— John Henrik Clarke