from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, August 8, 1963 (AFP/Getty Image)
“Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” — from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Stockholm (1964)
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” — from a 1956 sermon
“We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. … And the great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct. It is a good instinct if you don’t distort it and pervert it. Don’t give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity.” — from “The Drum Major Instinct” sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (February 4, 1968)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, sit with three of their four children in their Atlanta, Georgia, home in 1963. (Photograph courtesy Associated Press)
“To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” – from “The Purpose of Education”
“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.”
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” – from “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” (1967)
“Nonviolent action, the Negro saw, was the way to supplement, not replace, the progress of change. It was the way to divest himself of passivity without arraying himself in vindictive force.” – from “Why We Can’t Wait” (1964)
“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization… The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.” — from Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
MLK and others with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (photo via WikiCommons)
A hero whose vision and dream became a hope and light for millions. If not for him, my family and I won’t be here in America. He was a voice and inspiration then and now. Beautiful post!
Ain’t it the truth! His words and actions and spirit are forever in the history of the planet.