"...and to honor Crispus Attucks who was the leader and voice that day: The first to defy, and the first to die, with Maverick, Carr, and Gray. Call it riot or revolution, or mob or crowd as you may, such deaths have been seeds of nations, such lives shall be honored for aye..."
-John Boyle O'Reilly
"He is one of the most important figures in African-American history, not for what he did for his own race but for what he did for all oppressed people everywhere. He is a reminder that the African-American heritage is not only African but American and it is a heritage that begins with the beginning of America."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
"...the first to defy, the first to die."
"the first to pour out his blood as a precious libation on the altar of a people's rights."
-Transcript: "The Trial of William Wemms, James Hartegan, William M'Cauley, Hugh White, Matthew Killroy, William Warren, John Carrol, and Hugh Montgomery, soldiers in his Majesty's 29th Regiment of Foot, for the murder of Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, and Patrick Carr, on Monday-evening, the 5th of March, 1770, at the Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize, and general goal delivery, held at Boston."
"The time has gone by for colored people to talk patriotism. The first blood shed in the American Revolution (that of Attucks, who fell in Boston) was that of a colored man. The liberty purchased by the revolutionary men was used to degrade and enslave the colored man."
-The Liberator
"When the Colonists were staggering wearily under the cross of woe, a Negro came to the front and bore the cross to the victory of the glorious martyrdom."
-George Washington
“On the American side, the Negro saw limited military service until the war dragged on into its third year. This negative attitude toward enlisting the Colored man, sprang from a reluctance to deprive the slavemaster of his chattel slave, and from the fear of putting guns in the hands of a class of persons most of whom were not free. In the main, the Negro was thought of as a servile laborer, rather than a potential warrior. But when manpower needs became acute, whether in the volunteer forces, the militia, or the continental troops, fears were put into the background and the Negro was mustered in.”
-Benjamin Quarles
"...we find him choosing the better part and Crispus Attucks, a Negro, was the first to shed his blood on State street, Boston, that the white American might enjoy liberty forever, though his race remained in slavery."
-Booker T. Washington
"...the first who headed, the first who commanded, the first who charged, who struck the first blow, and the first whose blood was spilt on the altar of American Liberty."
-Martin T. Delaney
"...whose very looks was enough to terrify any person who... with one hand took hold of the bayonet, and with the other knocked the man down... in who all probability, the dreadful carnage of that night is chiefly to be ascribed."
-John Adams
"The conquering of our New England prejudices in favor of liberty 'does not pay.' It 'does not pay,' I submit, to plat our fellow-citizens under practical martial law; to beat the drum in our streets; to clothe our temples of justice in chains, and to creep along, by the light of the morning star, over the ground wet with the blood of Crispus Attucks, the noble colored man, who fell in King street before the muskets of tyranny, away in the dawn of our Revolution..."
-Thomas Sims
-John Boyle O'Reilly
"He is one of the most important figures in African-American history, not for what he did for his own race but for what he did for all oppressed people everywhere. He is a reminder that the African-American heritage is not only African but American and it is a heritage that begins with the beginning of America."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
"...the first to defy, the first to die."
"the first to pour out his blood as a precious libation on the altar of a people's rights."
-Transcript: "The Trial of William Wemms, James Hartegan, William M'Cauley, Hugh White, Matthew Killroy, William Warren, John Carrol, and Hugh Montgomery, soldiers in his Majesty's 29th Regiment of Foot, for the murder of Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, and Patrick Carr, on Monday-evening, the 5th of March, 1770, at the Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize, and general goal delivery, held at Boston."
"The time has gone by for colored people to talk patriotism. The first blood shed in the American Revolution (that of Attucks, who fell in Boston) was that of a colored man. The liberty purchased by the revolutionary men was used to degrade and enslave the colored man."
-The Liberator
"When the Colonists were staggering wearily under the cross of woe, a Negro came to the front and bore the cross to the victory of the glorious martyrdom."
-George Washington
“On the American side, the Negro saw limited military service until the war dragged on into its third year. This negative attitude toward enlisting the Colored man, sprang from a reluctance to deprive the slavemaster of his chattel slave, and from the fear of putting guns in the hands of a class of persons most of whom were not free. In the main, the Negro was thought of as a servile laborer, rather than a potential warrior. But when manpower needs became acute, whether in the volunteer forces, the militia, or the continental troops, fears were put into the background and the Negro was mustered in.”
-Benjamin Quarles
"...we find him choosing the better part and Crispus Attucks, a Negro, was the first to shed his blood on State street, Boston, that the white American might enjoy liberty forever, though his race remained in slavery."
-Booker T. Washington
"...the first who headed, the first who commanded, the first who charged, who struck the first blow, and the first whose blood was spilt on the altar of American Liberty."
-Martin T. Delaney
"...whose very looks was enough to terrify any person who... with one hand took hold of the bayonet, and with the other knocked the man down... in who all probability, the dreadful carnage of that night is chiefly to be ascribed."
-John Adams
"The conquering of our New England prejudices in favor of liberty 'does not pay.' It 'does not pay,' I submit, to plat our fellow-citizens under practical martial law; to beat the drum in our streets; to clothe our temples of justice in chains, and to creep along, by the light of the morning star, over the ground wet with the blood of Crispus Attucks, the noble colored man, who fell in King street before the muskets of tyranny, away in the dawn of our Revolution..."
-Thomas Sims