“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up.”
“Morals cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. The law cannot make an employer love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of he color of my skin.”
“I think the greatest victory of this period was . . . something internal. The real victory was what this period did to the psyche of the black man. The greatness of this period as that we armed ourselves with dignity and self-respect. The greatness of this period was that we straightened our backs up. And a man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.”
“We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live.”
1. Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus.
2. Remember always that nonviolent movement in Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation—not victory.
3. Walk and Talk in the manner of love, for God is love.
4. Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free.
5. Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men might be free.
6. Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy.
7. Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world.
8. Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart.
9. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.
10. Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain on a demonstration.
I sign this pledge, having seriously considered what I do and with the determination and will to persevere. Besides demonstrations, I could also help the movement by: (Circle the proper items)
Run errands, Drive my car, Fix food for volunteers, Clerical work, Make phone calls, Answer phones, Mimeograph, Type, Print signs, Distribute leaflets.
From the pledge signed by volunteers for sit-in demonstrations to protest segregated eating facilities in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?”
All quotes from the Revered Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. All emphases by gorjus.
I bought a book called The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr., compiled by his wife Coretta Scott King, when I was seventeen—twelve years ago. In the back of it this very young, very idealistic boy wrote the question “what do you want to do when you grow up?”
And I answered the question—my question—in ink. “I want to do what’s right.”
This is my question to you, readers: are you doing what’s right? If you met your seventeen year-old self, would he or she go, you’re awesome, or be disappointed?
It’s always worth thinking about. Myself, I’m teaching my teenager self how a discrimination suit works. “There are two types, disparate impact and disparate treatment . . . ”
i like this more to-the-point version of one of the above quotes. it’s also from dr. king.
“the law can’t make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and i’d say that’s pretty damned important.”
this is my favorite of his quotes.
“we are not called to be people of social responsibility, but of moral nobility.”