A lot of people say a lot of things. But sometimes someone says something profound enough to make the history books. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X are such people. Their M.O.: equal rights.
Protest at Selma
The battle is in our hands. And we can answer with creative nonviolence the call to higher ground to which the new directions of our struggle summons us. The road ahead is not altogether a smooth one. There are no broad highways that lead us easily and inevitably to quick solutions. But we must keep going. —Martin Luther King Jr., from the address at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream
Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of states rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights. —President Lyndon B. Johnson, from The Voting Rights Act Address
The Past That Would Not Die
I feel that every young Negro must make his personal contribution toward the accomplishment of his freedom. No one man can fight alone. You can’t confine the struggle for human freedom and dignity to one place or to one man. To free the right arm and cut the left arm off—this is not progress. —James H. Meredith, from I Can’t Fight Alone
The Children
Freedom is people realizing they are their own leader. —Diane Nash, Coordinator of the Freedom Riders
America Observed
I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. —Rosa Parks
The Toughest Indian in the World
When you resort to violence to prove a point, you've just experienced a profound failure of imagination. —Sherman Alexie
The Souls of Black Folk
Democracy is a method of realizing the broadest measure of justice to all human beings; only by putting power in the hands of each inhabitant can we hope to approximate in the ultimate use of that power the greatest good to the greatest number. —W.E.B. Du Bois
In Search of Bisco
Segregation is that which is forced upon an inferior by a superior. Separation is done voluntarily by two equals.—Malcolm X
Living by the Word
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. —Alice Walker
