Best 292 quotes in «civil rights quotes» category

We must redefine the American dream so that it does not rest on the assumption that we can throw old places away and create new ones in the middle of nowhere.

We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface hidden tension that is already alive

We shall find that every effort to realize equality necessitates a sacrifice of liberty.

We were still confined to that corner. More and more people joined us, some black and some white. On the second day, we awoke to learn that somebody must have told Martin Luther King that things were getting out of hand in Montgomery, because rumor had it that he left the line of march from Selma to join us in the hood. Despite myself, I was thrilled at the prospect of marching with King. I knew this was SNCC turf, and I was now with SNCC, but how can you not be thrilled with the prospect of being so close to the big man himself?

What if racism is so perfect, it made you believe the boycotting and peaceful protests of the civil rights movement actually changed policies, but in actuality policies were gonna change anyway. "Hell, let them sit whereever they want on the bus. Just don't sit with them. Let them into our schools, the teachers will still teach from a eurocentric curriculum anyway. Let them eat with us, they'll need the energy and strength to build our homes." Racism is a perfect system with an impenetrable barrier.

What is taking place here should be made very clear: Citizens who are completely innocent of any legal wrongdoing and simply minding their own business--not seeking any litigation and neither convicted nor accused of any legal infraction, criminal or civil--are ordered into court and told to write checks to officials of the court or they will be summarily arrested and jailed, Judges also order citizens to sell their houses and other property and turn the proceeds over to lawyers and other cronies they never hired. Summoning legally unimpeachable citizens to court and forcing them to empty their bank accounts to people they have not hired for services they have neither requested nor received on threat of physical punishment is what most people would call a protection racket. . . Yet family court judges do this as a matter of routine. This is by far the clearest example of what we political scientists term a "kleptocracy," or government by theives.

We want trumpets that sound like thunder, and men to act as though they were going to war with those corrupt and degrading principles that rob one of all rights, merely because he is ignorant, and of a little different color. Let us have principles that will give every one his due; and then shall wars cease, and the weary find rest.

When asked what gave her the strength and commitment to refuse segregation, (Rosa) Parks credited her mother and grandfather "for giving me the spirit of freedom... that I should not feel because of my race or color, inferior to any person. That I should do my very best to be a respectable person, to respect myself, to expect respect from others.

When Hughes writes, in the first two lines of his poem, “Let America be America again/ Let it be the dream it used to be,” he acknowledges that America is primarily a dream, a hope, an aspiration, that may never be fully attainable, but that spurs us to be better, to be larger. He follows this with the repeated counterpoint, “America never was America to me,” and through the rest of this remarkable poem he alternates between the oppressed and the wronged of America, and the great dreams that they have for their country, that can never be extinguished.

When I got off the train back home, I saw the WHITE and COLORED signs that had been there all along, as it it was the first time.

when an assault rifle is aimed at your face over nothing more than a refusal to move, you don't feel like the American experience is one that includes you

When people are forced to respect civil rights and human rights or face legal consequences, they don't like it. Civil rights laws will be scrupulously observed only when people accept that it is morally wrong to oppress or discriminate against fellow human beings. That awareness can come only through education. A law will enable integration in public places, but it does not foster understanding or appreciation in the hearts of people who continue to live with their prejudices.

When we hide discrimination under the guise of 'religious freedom,' we make a mockery of human rights.

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents.

White privilege is a manipulative, suffocating blanket of power that envelops everything we know...It's brutal and oppressive, bullying you into not speaking up for fear of losing your loved ones, or job, or flat. It scares you into silencing yourself: you don't get the privilege of speaking honestly about your feelings without extensively assessing the consequences...challenging it can have implications on your quality of life.

When people have a controversial opinion about an event or a prominent figure, it can significantly increase conflicts of interests that can result people to be socially excluded who don't share the same perspective as them. The way people can end conflicts of interests is to negotiate their conflicting views and unite in order to establish tranquility.

Why petition Parliament, at all, to do that for us, which, were they ever so well disposed, we can do more speedily and more effectively for ourselves.

Wir sind das Volk!" Dieser Satz hat uns gelehrt, dass wir, wenn wir unserer Sehnsucht glauben und ihr vertrauen, die Angst verlieren können. Eine Angst, die willfährige Dienerin jeder Art von nicht legitimierter Herrschaft ist, die uns ohnmächtig macht, die uns bindet. In dem Augenblick aber, in dem wir unsere Angst als Angst benennen und Anpassung und Angst als Geschwisterkinder erkennen, sind wir möglicherweise bereit zu erproben: Können wir auch ohne sie leben? In genau diesem Augenblick wachsen uns jene Kräfte zu, die eine ganze Gesellschaft verändern können.

You cannot stand for civil rights + not support gay marriage. You cannot stand for human rights + not support gay marriage. It's that simple. Everywhere, the voice of the oppressed must echo + ring out or else it will be crushed by the tyranny of wickedness.

You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim or diminish your light. Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. […] Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don't be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. And if you follow your truth down road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.

You can either have individual liberty, or dependence on the government. One is designed to undo the other.

You can't get around what's right, though," he said. "When we stop loving them, that's when they win.

You don't have to stand up for your rights to get justice, sometimes you can sit for your rights like Rosa Parks.

ACLU has become eccentric and destructive.

Why do we apologize for advocating for ourselves? Why do we apologize for taking up space that we are entitled to? Why do we apologize for thinking and speaking and being?

You have to join every other movement for the freedom of people.

You're not under attack when others gain rights and privileges you've always had.

Your right to swing your arm leaves off where my right not to have my nose struck begins.

[A.J. Muste] was very influenced - in - influential in the peace movement, in the civil rights movement.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

Any kind of civil rights oppression is wrong.

As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.

Being able to laugh got me through.

Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him.

As far as I am concerned, freedom summer never really ended.

Evil must be attacked by. . . the day to day assault of the battering rams of justice.

Food is an important lens onto the civil rights movement. One of the central issues of the movement was the right to eat in places that served the public. This battle led to the lunch counter sit-ins, which became embattled, contested places.

I... [am] convinced [man] has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I am not, in fact, a superhero. Just a humble, mild-mannered civil rights attorney.

If I was an exceptional human being in Detroit, then I saw no reason why I couldn't be an exceptional human being in Mississippi. In Hattiesburg.

Im a child of the Civil Rights Movement.

I'm a civil rights attorney. I'm a victim rights attorney.

Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.

If Barack Obama believes there are no victims in U.S, then I assume he'll shut down all the civil rights offices throughout the federal government, starting with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. If there are no victims, all affirmative action laws will immediately be repealed. Same thing for equity in pay.

If I were an Arab-American, I would insist on being profiled. This is not the time for civil rights. There are larger issues for Americans.

I got interested in politics during the civil rights movement and then Vietnam.

In this Revolution, no plans have been written for retreat. Those who will not get into step will find that the parade has passed them by.

I think I came here as a priest... The priest is more concerned with heresy than with sin; sins can be forgiven; heresy must be eliminated.

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

I think it's really crucial to leave our American context, not only for a sense of individual freedom, but also to make links to international struggles for civil rights.