Before the Mayflower Quotes

“White babies, for instance, commonly had negro wet nurses,”
― Lerone Bennett Jr., Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America 1619-1962

“Alexander Chamberlain said: “In personal character, in administrative ability, in devotion to the welfare of his subjects, in open-mindedness towards foreign influences, and in wisdom in the adoption of non-Negro ideas and institutions, King Askia . . . was certainly the equal of the average European monarch of the time and superior to many of them.”
― Lerone Bennett Jr., Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America 1619-1962

“A brilliant administrator and an enlightened legislator, Askia reorganized the army, improved the banking and credit systems and made Gao, Walata, Timbuktu, and Jenne intellectual centers. He has been hailed as one of the greatest monarchs of this period.”
― Lerone Bennett Jr., Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America 1619-1962

“The Mosaic records allude to them frequently; but while they are described as the most powerful, the most just, and the most beautiful of the human race, they are constantly spoken of as black, and there seems to be no other conclusion to be drawn, than that at that remote period of history the leading race of the Western World was a black race.”
― Lerone Bennett Jr., Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America 1619-1962