Here are some quotes in celebration of one of the most charismatic leaders of equality;


“Just as lightening makes no sound until it stirkes, the Negro revolution generated quietly.”

“In the Summer of 1963 the knife of violence was just that close to the nation’s aorta. Hundreds of cities might now be mourning countless dead but for the operation of certain forces which gave political surgeons an oppurtunity to cut boldly and safely to remove the deadly peril”

“The Negro also had to recgonize that one hundred years after emancipation he lived on a lonely island of economic insecurity in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.: The lived within two concentric circles of segregation, Race and Poverty.”


“Nono-violence could symbolize the gold badge of heroism rather than the white flag of cowaridice.”

“No one can pretend that because a people may be oppressed , every individual member is virtuous and worthy.”

“The ultimate tragedy of Birgmingham was not the brutality of the bad people, but the silence of the good people.”

“I don’t know what will happen; I don’t know where the money will come from. But I have to make a faith act.”

“You will never know the meaning of utter darkness until you have lain in such a dugeon, sunlight is streaming overhead and still seeing only darkness below.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Four baisic steps in non violent movement

Collection of facts
Negotiation
Self purification
Direct action

“groups tend to be much more immoral than idividuals”

“Isnt this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquires precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isnt this like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucifixtion?”

“They (Religious leaders who are pro civil rights) have carved a tunnel of hope through the dar mountain of disappointment.”

The ends don’t justify the means in other words acting nonviolently to preserve inequality and injustice.

“the sins of a dark yesterday will be redeemed in the achievements of a bright tommorow.”


“A movement that changes people and institutions is a revolution.”

“It is true that these elements (demonstrations, protest, boycotts) have meaning, but to ignore the concrete specific gains in dismantiling the structure of segregation is like noticing the beauty of the rain, but failing to see that it has enriched the soil.”


“Millions of white Americans, for the first time, had a clear, long look at Negroes engaged in a serious occupation. For the first time millions listened to the informed and thoughtful words of Negro spokesmen, from all walks of life. The stereotype of the Negro suffered a heavy blow.”


“his goal (The negro’s) is not to capture that which belongs to someone else. He simply wants and will have what is honorably his.”

“Giving shoes to a man who has not yet learned to walk is a cruel jest.” In refrence to giving someone a job without the proper education.

“The struggle for rights is, at the bottom, a struggle for oppurtunities.”

“Ask a prisoner released after years of confinement in jail what what efforts he faces in taking on the privelages and responsibilites of freedom, and the enormity of the Negroes’ task in the years ahead becomes clear.”

“One aspect of the civil rights struggle that recieves little attention is the contribution it makes to the whole society.”

On nuclear proliferation

“Political agreements are no longer secure enough to safeguard life against a peril of such devasating finality.”

“Sooner or later all the peoples of the world, without regard to the political systems under which they live,will have to discover a way to live together in peace.”