“Our words stand,” poet Adrienne Rich once said, and it is true — there is nothing that warms this journalist’s heart more than a good, direct quote with words that stake their ground and stand fast.

At this moment, when folks are clamoring for an end to anti-blackness in policing and demanding racial justice and equity long denied, we wanted to foreground the voices of the region’s Black nonprofit leaders. But we thought it might be interesting to look further back than just the past two weeks of coverage at Generocity.

And so we dove into our archives — as well as our more recent stories — to pick the 12 quotes we’ve included here.

Some of these folks have written columns for us, and appeared in multiple stories (some of which we’ve linked to so you can read them in their entirety), and honestly have many, many great quotes from which we could have chosen. Other folks, though new to us, have also made an impression, and we hope we’ll have more to link to for them in the future.

No compilation of this sort is complete, of course. So keep saying memorable, insightful and noteworthy things — we promise to catch up!

• Read As protests and unrest grip the nation, how should Philly nonprofits respond?
• Read ‘What has the most significant impact on leadership of color?’ 16 Philly-area leaders answer our question
• Read Meet Trooper Sanders, Benefits Data Trust’s new CEO

• Read Kneel, donate, or burn it all down? Decarceration and 5 types of justice work
• Read Race and exclusion in Philadelphia: Snapshots from the past 100 years, Part I and Part II
• Read Artist activists, policy lobbyists, early childhood educators: The great diversities in making a difference

• Read Black and Brown youth are powerful, not pawns
• Read Here’s how 3 Philly nonprofit leaders define ‘activism’
• Read ‘The revolution will be funded’: Meet the Black and Brown Workers Collective

• Read Building power in underserved communities through venture philanthropy
• Read 5 smart lessons about investing to end poverty in Philadelphia

• Read As protests and unrest grip the nation, how should Philly nonprofits respond?

• Read Activating race equity problem-solving on nonprofit boards
• Read As protests and unrest grip the nation, how should Philly nonprofits respond?
• Read ‘What has the most significant impact on leadership of color?’ 16 Philly-area leaders answer our questions

• Read Pedagogy amid pandemic and protest

• Read 12 philanthropy orgs aim to improve equity with support from Philanthropy Network
• Read Philanthropy Network and Chamber of Commerce release corporate social responsibility report
• Read Leader List 2018: Meet 12 people of color strengthening Philly’s social impact sector

• Read Driving forward with racial equity in the changing field of fine arts

• Read Vanessa Briggs: ‘Upstream solutions are key to authentic engagement of our communities’
• Read ‘What has the most significant impact on leadership of color?’ 16 Philly-area leaders answer our questions
• Read Our values, ourselves: Unpacking the challenges and repping the future of social impact at ADVANCE

• Read Brother to brother: An open letter to the next generation of Black male leaders

• Read As protests and unrest grip the nation, how should Philly nonprofits respond?