Civil Rights Quotes - Page 5

• How could they say that my religion, Islam was a 'race hate' religion after all the plunder and enslavement and domination of my people by white Christians in the name of white supremacy?

  Muhammad Ali

  Christian, Freedom, Hate

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• Being a Negro in America means trying to smile when you want to cry. It means trying to hold on to physical life amid psychological death. It means the pain of watching your children grow up with clouds of inferiority in their mental skies. It means having their legs off, and then being condemned for being a cripple.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Children, Growing Up, Pain

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• I'm the world's original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.

  Thurgood Marshall

  Thinking, Years, World

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• Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal.

  Harry S. Truman

  Government, Population, Individual

  1945 Speech to Congress, 6 Sep.

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• Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Veterans Day, Our Veterans, Us Veterans

  Abraham Lincoln, Mario Matthew Cuomo, G. S. Boritt (2004). “Lincoln on Democracy”, p.86, Fordham Univ Press

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• I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot.

  Horace Greeley

  Men, Rights, Feet

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• The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.

  Jackie Robinson

  Class, Issues, Democracy

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• What are you doing for others?

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Kings, Helping Others, Volunteer

  Jim Haskins, James Haskins, Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1992). “I have a dream: the life and words of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Millbrook Pr

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• 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

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• They were beginning to burn churches. They were beginning to move beyond crosses... They burned churches because they understood that the Christian faith was what inspired the movement and kept it going.

  Ed King

  Christian, Moving, Church

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• It is to law alone that men owe justice and liberty. It is this salutary organ, of the will of all which establishes in civil rights the natural equality between men. It is this celestial voice which dictates to each citizen the precepts of public reason, and teaches him to act according to the rules of his own judgment and not to behave inconsistently with himself. It is with this voice alone that political leaders should speak when. they command.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Men, Voice, Rights

  Jean Jacques Rousseau (2015). “The Social Contract”, p.578, Jean Jacques Rousseau

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• Mr. President, passage of this bill will visit the heel of oppression on all the people, vitiate their constitutional shield against tyranny, and materially hasten the destruction of the best design for self-government yet devised by the minds of men. Its passage will mark one of the darkest days in history

  Strom Thurmond

  Men, Self, People

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• They [the founders] proclaimed to all the world the revolutionary doctrine of the divine rights of the common man. That doctrine has ever since been the heart of the American faith.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Heart, Men, Rights

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1960). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954”, p.518, Best Books on

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• Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion.

  William Godwin

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  William Godwin (1796). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness”, p.261

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• A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left.

  William O. Douglas

  People, Liberty, Groups

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  If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

  John Stuart Mill

  Freedom, Philosophy, Differences

  On Liberty ch. 2 (1859)

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• Civil liberties victories never stay won, but must be fought for over and over again.

  Ira Glasser

  Victory, Liberty, Civil Liberties

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• In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Religious, Rights, Government

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.241

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• There is no contradiction between effective law enforcement and respect for civil and human rights.

  Dorothy Height

  Rights, Law, Enforcement

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• None of us would trade freedom of expression for the narrowness of the public censor. America is a free market for people who have something to say, and need not fear to say it.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Expression, America, People

  Address to the National Book Awards ceremony in New York City. The New York Times, p. 42, March 09, 1967.

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• By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall stipulate freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are fetters against doing evil which no honest government should decline.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Mean, Army, Rights

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.11, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Demanding domestic security in times of war invites carelessness in preserving civil liberties and the right of privacy. Frequently the people are only too anxious for their freedoms to be sacrificed on the altar of authoritarianism thought to be necessary to remain safe and secure.

  Ron Paul

  War, People, Liberty

  "Bush’s Wars". www.counterpunch.org. September 21, 2001.

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• There are a million Negroes in Mississippi. I think they'll take care of me.

  James Meredith

  Thinking, Care, Mississippi

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• The day for the Negro man being a coward is over.

  James Meredith

  Men, Coward

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• The Negro wants to be everything but himself... He wants to integrate with the white man, but he cannot integrate with himself or with his own kind. The Negro wants to lose his identity because he does not know his own identity.

  Elijah Muhammad

  Men, White, Identity

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