Civil Rights Quotes

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." "Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong" "No human being is illegal." "The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves." "I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." "Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me." "If you have an opportunity to use your voice you should use it. People fought for us to have a voice." "Our fight must be grounded in the belief that equal justice under law is a right not an option or a privilege" "I grew up in a segregated America; I know what it feels like to be held down." "Rule of law is a fundamental principle we must adhere to" "A right delayed is a right denied." "Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress." "I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law." "Ask the SCLC about John Lewis and I'll tell you the story of how someone who not only served as the conscience of our country but literally shed his blood in the struggle for the soul of America" "We must commit to a future where everyone can succeed, no matter their race, religion, gender, or disability" "A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither." "In Republics the great danger is that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority" "That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights of which when they enter into a state of society they cannot by any compact deprive or divest their posterity" "I swear to the Lord I still can't see why Democracy means everybody but me" "The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted"