Civil Rights Quotes - Page 22

• There's no problem on the planet that can't be solved without violence. That's the lesson of the civil rights movement.

  Andrew Young

  Rights, Movement, Lessons

  "Andrew Young: Nothing you can't solve without violence". Interview with Henry Unger, www.ajc.com. January 12, 2013.

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• The Civil Rights for Musicians Act is about economic justice for African American artists. It's about what's right. And it's about time.

  Dionne Warwick

  Artist, Rights, Justice

  "Big Radio’s Attacks on Me Aren’t Surprising" by Dionne Warwick, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 29, 2009.

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• We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.

  Voltaire

  Risk, Freedom Of Speech, Hazards

  Francois Voltaire (1977). “The Portable Voltaire”, p.103, Penguin

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• You can't put civil rights on the ballot.

  Jesse Ventura

  Rights, Ballots

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• I took an interest in the Civil Rights Movement. I listened to Martin Luther King. The Vietnam War was raging. When I was 18, I was eligible for the draft, but when I went to be tested, I didn't qualify.

  Radhanath Swami

  Kings, War, Rights

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• I was raised in Arizona, and I went to public school, and the extent of my knowledge of the civil-rights movement was the story of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. I wonder how much my generation knows.

  Emma Stone

  Kings, School, Rights

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• The Community Relations Service would be another pro-civil rights Federal agency attempting to make people do what the policy of the Federal Government demanded that they do. Moreover, in title II of the bill, this Service is made an agent of the court without due thought as to the effect on legal and judicial procedures.

  John Sparkman

  Agency, Rights, Government

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• The power granted the Attorney General to intervene in all equal-protection-of-the-law cases is extremely broad and dangerous. Choices made by the Attorney General could follow a political and selected pattern.

  John Sparkman

  Choices Made, Law, Political

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• Racism has always been able to come up with a scientific veneer.

  Andrew Hacker

  Racism, Able, Veneer

  Andrew Hacker (2010). “Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal”, p.37, Simon and Schuster

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• Only in the darkness can you see the stars.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Hope, Stars

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• A first attempt to recover the right of self government may fail, so may a second, a third, etc. But as a younger and more instructed race comes on, the sentiment becomes more and more intuitive, and a fourth, a fifth, or some subsequent one of the ever renewed attempts will ultimately succeed... To attain all this, however, rivers of blood must yet flow, and years of desolation pass over; yet the object is worth rivers of blood and years of desolation. For what inheritance so valuable can man leave to his posterity?

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Race, Self

  Thomas Jefferson, Andrew M. Allison (1983). “The Real Thomas Jefferson”, Natl Center for Constitutional

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• A government regulating itself by what is wise and just for the many, uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few who direct their affairs, has not been seen, perhaps, on earth. Or if it existed for a moment at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix the term of its continuance. Still, I believe it does exist here in a greater degree than anywhere else; and for its growth and continuance... I offer sincere prayers.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Prayer, Selfish

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 4: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.293

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• May [our Declaration of Independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government... All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Believe, Eye, Ignorance

  Thomas Jefferson (1943). “Thomas Jefferson: selections from his writings edited, with an introduction”

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• That was only the beginning - where one burns books, one will finally also burn people.

  Heinrich Heine

  Book, People, Burn Book

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• In the current struggle, there is one positive course of action. There is no alternative, for the alternative would connote a rear march.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Struggle, Alternatives, Action

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.99, Beacon Press

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• 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.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Revolution, Retreat, Steps

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.99, Beacon Press

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• We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.

  Maya Angelou

  Color, Kwanzaa, Common Threads

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• No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they'd die for.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Death, Memorable

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• The busybodies have begun to infect American society with a nasty intolerance - a zeal to police the private lives of others and hammer them into standard forms - A Nation of Finger Pointers.

  Lance Morrow

  America, Police, Hammers

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• A little old lady sitting at the front of the bus can do nothing to change civil rights.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Rights, Sitting, Littles

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• Liberty, whether natural, civil, or political, is the lawful power in the individual to exercise his corresponding rights. It is greatly favored in law.

  Henry Campbell Black

  Exercise, Rights, Law

  Henry Campbell Black (1910). “Handbook of American Constitutional Law”

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• Most of the major ills of the world have been caused by well-meaning people who ignored the principle of individual freedom, except as applied to themselves, and who were obsessed with fanatical zeal to improve the lot of mankind.

  Henry Grady Weaver

  Freedom, People, Liberty

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• Where does a black soul go to rest?

  Randall Robinson

  Soul, Black, Doe

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• At the heart of the fractured soul of America is the frightening chasm of race.

  Manning Marable

  Heart, Race, America

  Manning Marable (1997). “Black Liberation in Conservative America”, p.200, South End Press

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• If the events of September 11, 2001, have proven anything, it's that the terrorists can attack us, but they can't take away what makes us American - our freedom, our liberty, our civil rights. No, only Attorney General John Ashcroft can do that.

  Jon Stewart

  Rights, September 11, Liberty

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