One of Late Writer Toni Morrison’s Most Famous Quotes About Racism Came from a Talk at Portland State University. Listen to It Here.

The talk was recorded on reel-to-reel tapes and stashed in a PSU warehouse for years, until five years ago, when the school’s head of the library special collections unearthed the tapes and converted them to digital format.

Toni Morrison speaking at A Tribute to Chinua Achebe - 50 Years Anniversary of "Things Fall Apart." Town Hall, February 26th, 2008, New York. (Angela Radulescu)
By Elise Herron

On Aug. 5, writer Toni Morrison died at the age of 88.

Morrison—prolific author of 11 novels, professor emeritus at Princeton University and 1993 Nobel laureate in literature—left a profound legacy with works such as Beloved, Song of Solomon, and Sula.

Quotes from Morrison's written and spoken addresses have been shared widely in the days since her death, as people re-examine her work and her nuanced discussions of race in America—and some of those quotes come from a talk and panel discussion Morrison participated in at Portland State University in 1975.

The talk was recorded on reel-to-reel tapes and stashed in a PSU warehouse for years, until five years ago, when the school's head of the library special collections unearthed the tapes and converted them to digital format.

Soon after, the PSU address was revived by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who transcribed Morrison's full remarks on racism:

The full recording is well worth listening to in its entirety here.

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