Civil Right Movement Quotes

• For years now I have heard the word "wait." It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "never."

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Years, Direct Action

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.90, Beacon Press

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I was 15 years old in the tenth grade, I heard Martin Luther King, Jr. Three years later, when I was 18, I met Dr. King and we became friends. Two years after that I became very involved in the civil rights movement. I was in college at the time. As I got more and more involved, I saw politics as a means of bringing about change

  John Lewis

  Kings, Mean, College

  7 Copy quote

• I came out of the Civil Rights Movement, and I had a different kind of focus than most people who have just the academic background as their primary training experience

  Bernice Johnson Reagon

  Rights, People, Focus

  9 Copy quote

• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Wisdom, Peace, Kings

  "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

  198 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Peace, Kings

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.115, Beacon Press

  88 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  229 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Inspiring

  378 Copy quote

• I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Being Strong, Peace

  Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 10 Dec. 1964

  94 Copy quote

  Show source

• I came at age in the '60s, and initially my hopes and dreams were invested in politics and the movements of the time - the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement. I worked on Bobby Kennedy's campaign for president as a teenager in California and the night he was killed.

  David Talbot

  Dream, War, Teenager

  7 Copy quote

• Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Hate, Love Life, Mind Love

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.141, Beacon Press

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• My friends in the Congress, I have known Coretta King since I went south during the civil rights movement as a lawyer. She was a vibrant, consistent, totally dedicated partner with her husband.

  John Conyers

  Kings, Husband, Rights

  6 Copy quote

• John Brown first swam into my vision in the 1960s when I was a political activist in the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement at Chapel Hill, where I went to university.

  Russell Banks

  War, Rights, Political

  52 Copy quote

• Mrs. Parks was a shy, soft spoken woman who was uncomfortable being revered as a symbol of the civil rights movement. She only hoped to inspire young people to achieve great things.

  Jim Costa

  Moving, Rights, People

  7 Copy quote

• The really important victory of the civil rights movement was that it made racism unpopular, whereas a generation ago at the turn of the last century, you had to embrace racism to get elected to anything.

  Carol Moseley Braun

  Rights, Racism, Victory

  17 Copy quote

• My parents demonstrated against the Vietnam war, they were into the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, they started the first vegetarian restaurant in Pittsburgh.

  Justin Sane

  War, Rights, Parent

  "Anti-Flag to incite May Day masses" by Mark Brown, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2006.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• It was a particularly interesting and exciting time, and the European political and artistic establishment was turned on by the Civil Rights Movement and the artistic revolution that was becoming a part of jazz.

  Archie Shepp

  Rights, Interesting, Political

  "A Dialogue with Archie Shepp". Interview with Scott Cashman, www.archieshepp.net. December 10, 1990.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think that the thing that we learned back in the day of the Civil Rights Movement is that you do have to keep on keeping on.

  Charlayne Hunter-Gault

  Thinking, Rights, Movement

  9 Copy quote

• The civil rights movement didn't begin in Montgomery and it didn't end in the 1960s. It continues on to this very minute.

  Julian Bond

  Freedom, Equality, Rights

  225 Copy quote

• Anyone who said he wasn't afraid during the civil rights movement was either a liar or without imagination. I was scared all the time. My hands didn't shake but inside I was shaking.

  James L. Farmer, Jr.

  Liars, Lying, Rights

  25 Copy quote

• I think the Civil Rights Movement changed that trajectory for me. The first thing I did was leave school. I was suspended for my participation in Movement demonstrations in my hometown, December, 1961

  Bernice Johnson Reagon

  School, Thinking, Rights

  23 Copy quote

• My parents both were doing the Civil Rights Movement, were very involved with the civil rights to Congress. And my friends' parents were as well.

  Janis Ian

  Rights, Parent, Movement

  "Janis Ian's Controversial 'Society's Child'". "News and Notes" with Tony Cox, www.npr.org. March 2, 2009.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Klan had used fear, intimidation and murder to brutally oppress over African-Americans who sought justice and equality and it sought to respond to the young workers of the civil rights movement in Mississippi in the same way.

  Charles Rangel

  Equality, Rights, Justice

  7 Copy quote

• The arts and a belief in the values of the civil rights movement, in the overwhelming virtue of diversity, these were our religion. My parents worshipped those ideals.

  Jonathan Lethem

  Art, Rights, Diversity

  "Straight outta Brooklyn" by Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. December 13, 2003.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Senator John Stennis:
  The civil rights movement did more to free the white man that the black man. ... It freed my soul.

  Joe Biden

  Men, White, Rights

  7 Copy quote

• The civil rights movement would experience many important victories, but Rosa Parks will always be remembered as its catalyst.

  Jim Costa

  Rights, Victory, Important

  7 Copy quote