[after refusing admittance to the Fire Chief]
You know what he's saying right now? "Black bastard can't throw me out!" You know where he's saying it? Out in the parking lot.
Joe Clark
Morgan Freeman · 24 quotes
Dr. Frank Napier
Robert Guillaume · 3 quotes
Ms. Levias
Beverly Todd · 3 quotes
Thomas Sams
Jermaine Hopkins · 3 quotes
Most scenes together: Joe Clark & Thomas Sams (3), Joe Clark & Dr. Frank Napier (2), Joe Clark & Ms. Levias (2)
Lean on Me quotes
Page 2 of 2[at an assembly]
I want all of you to take a good look at these people on the risers behind me. These people have been here up to five years, and done absolutely nothing. These are drug dealers and drug users. They have taken up space. They have disrupted this school. They have harassed your teachers. And they have intimidated you. Well, times are about to change. You will not be bothered in Joe Clark's school. These people are incorrigible. And since none of them could graduate anyway... [to those onstage] ...you are all expurgated. You are dismissed! You are out of here, forever. I wish you well! Mr. Wright... [after Security Dean William Wright and Eastside's new guards eject all the "problem" kids from school, Clark's audience in the decaying auditorium grows silent] Next time, it may be you. If you do no better than they did, next time, it will be you. They said this school was dead, like the cemetery it's built on. But we call our Eastside teams "Ghosts", don't we? And what are ghosts? Ghosts are spirits that rise from the dead. I want you to be my ghosts. You are going to lead our resurrection, by defying the expectation that all of us are doomed to failure. My motto is simple: If you do not succeed in life, I don't want you to blame your parents. I don't want you to blame the white man. I want you to blame yourselves. The responsibility is yours! In two weeks we have a practice exam, and the Minimum Basic Skills Test on April 13. That's 110 school days from now. But it's not just about those test scores. If you do not have these basic skills, you will find yourselves locked out. Locked out of that American dream that you see advertised on TV, that they tell you is so easy to get. You are here for one reason. One reason only: To learn. To work for what you want. The alternative is to waste your time and to fall into the trap of crime, drugs, and death. Does everyone understand that? Do all of you understand me? Then welcome to the new Eastside High.
[at lunch, in the cafeteria, Clark has singled out Sams]
I want all of you to look at this slovenly, sloppy boy here as an example of how not to dress. Now if you look like this when you look in your mirrors in the morning, find something else to put on. Self-respect permeates every aspect of your life. If you don't have it for yourself, you're not gonna get it from anywhere.
[explaining why he expelled students from his school]
They say one bad apple spoils a bunch. Well what about three hundred? Rotten to the core!
[to Kid Ray, who is leaving school to work for a crime syndicate]
You'll be dead in a year, son. Hear what I'm saying? You'll be dead in a year!
[to the Eastside students who have gathered outside City Hall to demonstrate on his behalf]
Wow... Somebody tell me why I can't get this kind of turnout for study hall!
[with a baseball bat in his hand]
They used to call me Crazy Joe. Well, now they can call me Batman!
All right people, here we are. This is the day. In one hour, you are going to take an exam, one administered by the state to test your basic skills, along with the quality of education here at Eastside High. And I want to tell you what the people out there are saying about you and what they think about your chances. They say that you're inferior! That you are just a bunch of **** and spics and poor white trash! Education is wasted on you! You cannot learn! You're lost! I mean all of you! I want all the white students to stand up. All my white students. Stand up. Right now. Stand up. C'mon, all my white students, stand up, stand up. That's it. C'mon, stand up...These are my white children, and they're the same as all of you! They've got no place to go. If they had, they would have abandoned us a long time ago like everybody else did. But they couldn't. So here they are at Eastside High, just like the rest of us. You can sit down. Are you getting my point, people? Is it beginning to sink in? We sink, we swim, we rise, we fall. We meet our fate together! Now, it took the help of a good, good friend to make me know and understand that. And I do understand it. And I'm grateful. I'm eternally grateful...And now, I've got a message for those people out there who've abandoned you and written you off! Can you hear me? CAN YOU HEAR ME? Good!...You are not inferior! Your grades may be. Your school may have been. But you can turn all of that around and make liars out of those bastards in exactly one hour, when you take that test and pass it and win! So here's what I want you to do: When you find your minds wandering, I want you to knuckle back down and concentrate. Concentrate! Remember what's at stake. And show them what Eastside High is all about, a spirit that will not die!
Code 10! Code 10! This is Joe Clark! Get those chains off the doors, the enemy's here!
Hey, son...! [removing Sams' baseball cap] Put something in your head, not on it!
I don't have to do nothin' but stay black and die!
Mr. Mayor, on behalf of myself and on behalf the students of Eastside High, you can tell the State to go to Hell!
The Lord said, "Do whatever you have to do." And he didn't say "Joe, be polite."