#OwnVoices: 12 impactful quotes from Black nonprofit leaders in Philly

“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!

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• 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?