Joseph Lowery Quotes

• 'I'd like a hamburger and a coke, please.'
  'Sir, we don't serve negroes here.'
  'Ma'am, I don't eat negroes. I'd like a hamburger and a coke.'

  Joseph Lowery

  Hamburgers, Coke, Please

  Speech honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., Clemson University, January 17, 2005.

  38 Copy quote

• If you don't know where you come from, it's difficult to determine where you are.- It's even more difficult to plan where you are going.

  Joseph Lowery

  Where You Come, Where You Are, Difficult

  47 Copy quote

• We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around... when yellow will be mellow... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right.

  Joseph Lowery

  Men, Yellow, White

  Joseph Lowery's Inaugural Benediction, voices.washingtonpost.com. January 20, 2009.

  36 Copy quote

• Everything has changed and nothing has changed.

  Joseph Lowery

  Changed, Things Have Changed

  "Civil Rights Leader Recalls Boycott". "News & Notes" with Ed Gordon, www.npr.org. December 6, 2005.

  20 Copy quote

• If you don't know where you come from, then you want know when you'er being taken back.

  Joseph Lowery

  Taken, Want, Where You Come

  19 Copy quote

• It's interesting to me that killing damages the image of God when it's done by a person, but it doesn't damage it when it's done by the state.

  Joseph Lowery

  Interesting, Damage, Done

  "Religious Reflections on the Death Penalty". Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington, D.C., www.pewforum.org. June 5, 2001.

  21 Copy quote

• We know there are no weapons of mass destruction. But there are weapons of misdirection. Millions without health insurance, poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor.

  Joseph Lowery

  War, Mass Destruction, Weapons

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

  20 Copy quote

• We've got nearly 50 million people in America with no health insurance. That's a weapon of mass destruction.

  Joseph Lowery

  Mass Destruction, America, People

  16 Copy quote

• I'm neither Democrat nor Republican. I'm Methodist. I have grievances with both parties.

  Joseph Lowery

  Party, Republican, Methodists

  "Rev. Joseph Lowery, Author Ron Christie on 'FNS'". "FOX News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. February 13, 2006.

  16 Copy quote

• You gotsta love all God's children!

  Joseph Lowery

  Children

  Speech honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. in Clemson University, January 17, 2005.

  14 Copy quote

• Public policy today is favoring the rich, not the poor. It's not addressing the needs of the poor.

  Joseph Lowery

  Needs, Today, Rich

  "Rev. Joseph Lowery, Author Ron Christie on 'FNS'". "FOX News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. February 13, 2006.

  18 Copy quote

• I am in the valley of prayer on the issue of gay marriage, and I will err on the side of inclusiveness and not exclusion. I'm going to follow Jesus and say, Whosoever will, let them come. And I'm going to extend rights to all of God's children and if I am wrong, God will have to judge me.

  Joseph Lowery

  Jesus, Prayer, Children

  19 Copy quote

• I don't absolve the Democrats of their lack of commitment to deal with poverty. But nowadays we're witnessing the widening of the gap. There's something wrong when a handful of people have more than they'll ever need while millions of people have less than they always need.

  Joseph Lowery

  Commitment, People, Needs

  19 Copy quote

• By reserving the penalty of death for black defendants, or for the poor, or for those convicted of killing white persons, we perpetrate the ugly legacy of slavery-teaching our children that some lives are inherently less precious than others.

  Joseph Lowery

  Children, Teaching, White

  18 Copy quote

• Rosa Parks was an unlikely person, but she became an instrument of the people's will in that community who were tired. They said she was tired from working and perhaps she was - but she herself said later that she was spiritually tired and weary of being humiliated by being asked to move back so that a white person could occupy her seat.

  Joseph Lowery

  Moving, Tired, White

  12 Copy quote

• I think the Montgomery bus boycott initiated an era of self-determination.

  Joseph Lowery

  Determination, Thinking, Self

  "Remembering Rosa Parks". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. October 24, 2005.

  14 Copy quote

• It's ironic that the Bible belt is the killing belt - Texas, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, and so forth, Georgia. Chief executioners.

  Joseph Lowery

  Virginia, Florida, Texas

  "Religious Reflections on the Death Penalty". The Pew Forum, www.pewforum.org. June 5, 2001.

  8 Copy quote

• GM is pursuing gasoline-savings solutions on many fronts on the way to our ultimate vision of hydrogen fuel cell-powered transportation. E85 ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline and is a renewable, domestic fuel that can enhance the nation's economy and energy security.

  Joseph Lowery

  Hydrogen Fuel, Cells, Vision

  14 Copy quote

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