- Richard Hatcher: I believe that the 70s will be the decade of an independent black political thrust. It's destiny will depend up us here at Gary this afternoon. How shall we respond? Will we walk in unity or disperse in a thousand different directions? Will we stand for principals or settle for a mess of pottage? Will we maintain our integrity or will we succumb to the man's temptation? Will we act like free black men or like timid, shivering chattels? Will we do what must be done? These are the questions confronting this Convention and we - you and I - are the only ones that can answer them and history will be the judge.
- Richard Hatcher: We demand the eradication of heroin from the ghetto... We know, black people know that white society would never tolerate it in such epidemic proportions in suburbia and we we will not tolerate it in the ghetto.
- Jesse Jackson: Brothers and sisters, what time is it? It's Nationtime. It's Nationtime for all of the tribes from Boston to Birmingham, Mississippi to Minnesota, San Diego to Seattle, and Galveston to Gary. What time is it?
- Richard Hatcher: We shall never forgive the massive support that our racist American government and the American corporations have extended to the white barbarians who reign in the Union of South Africa.
- Jesse Jackson: Black is our common denominator. Brother Malcolm X said on more occasion than one, we saw ourselves as house slaves, field slaves and yard slaves. Only when we recognized our common denominator was slavery, and that our numerator didn't make any difference, could we come together and begin to break it up.
- Richard Hatcher: We demand that any party which asks our support acknowledge the inhumanity every black man, woman, and child faces in a 100 different ways, each and every day of his existence.
- Jesse Jackson: We're not going to take over this nation drunk or on dope. We must be sober. We've got to know what's goin' down.
- Jesse Jackson: I don't want to be the gray shadow of the white elephant of one party. I don't want to be a part of the gray shadow of the white donkey! I am 21 in 72. I am a black man and I want a black party. I do not trust white Republicans or white Democrats!
- Jesse Jackson: It is bad, it is real bad to be in a slum. But, it's far worse to have that slum in you. Far worse! A lot of us running around talking about genocide. But, before the man can get to us, black on black killing is fratricide - that is when the slum has gotten in us. When we snatch our own black women's pocketbooks, the slum is in us. When we run down black folks and run from white folks, the slum is in us.
- Jesse Jackson: We ain't takin' it no mo'. No. more, "Yes sah, boss." No more bowin' and scrapin'. We are 25 million strong. Cut us in or cut it out. It is a new ballgame.
- Self - Narrator: For every murdered martyr, 500,000 have come to take their place and our spirit remains unconquered.
- Jesse Jackson: We are one of every five national Democratic votes. That means that we are *due* - twenty per cent of that party. What does that mean? Twenty per cent of the judges, of the generals, of the admirals. Twenty per cent of the Treasury Department, the Labor Department, the Commerce Department, the Office of Management and Budget. We got to learn how to count.
- Bobby Seale: Revolution is *not* about just a simple and stupid design to kill nobody. Revolution is about the right for humanity and black people in this country here, and across the world, to survive. Revolution is about your humanity. You are black and beautiful and you are human beings. We are human beings and that's what we mean.
- Bobby Seale: You, brothers and sisters and people, are the *boss*. You are the boss! Cause *you* tell *us* what you want - and what you need - and what you better have. All power to the people. Power to black people.