“He has been made strong in tribulation. He has constrained oppression…” — Leslie Pinckney Hill | V2Melody

“He has been made strong in tribulation. He has constrained oppression to give him wings.”

Turning hardship into spiritual lift rather than defeat · Foreword, The Wings of Oppression, 1921

Leslie Pinckney Hill

About Leslie Pinckney Hill

Leslie Pinckney Hill

14 May 1880–15 February 1960

Leslie Pinckney Hill entered the world on May 14, 1880, in Lynchburg, Virginia, the son of Samuel H. Hill, a man who had known the brutal chains of enslavement, and Sarah E. Hill. In the shadow of the post-Reconstruction South, where the promises of freedom still clashed with the realities of Jim Crow oppression…

More by Leslie Pinckney Hill

Poems by Leslie Pinckney Hill

More remarks by Leslie Pinckney Hill

“What he craves above all else is that he shall be calm and right and faithful in his place.”

Worth measured by fidelity rather than outward victory · Essay, The Future of Our Culture, Journal of Negro Education

“The Negro has been driven under all the burdens of oppression, both material and spiritual, to the brink of desperation, but he has always been saved by his philosophy of life.”

Crediting an inward philosophy for survival under pressure · Foreword, The Wings of Oppression, 1921

“Let those voices speak of self-reliance, noble striving, and ambition for high achievement, and the quality of the adult life will generally be of the same character.”

What childhood hears becomes the grain of later character · Foreword, The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer, 1920