Civil Rights Quotes - Page 25

• The Habeas Corpus secures every man here, alien or citizen, against everything which is not law, whatever shape it may assume.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Law, Habeas Corpus

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private”, p.257

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• It is left... to the juries, if they think the permanent judges are under any bias whatever in any cause, to take on themselves to judge the law as well as the fact. They never exercise this power but when they suspect partiality in the judges; and by the exercise of this power they have been the firmest bulwarks of English liberty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Thinking, Law

  Thomas Jefferson (1853). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.82

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• People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.

  Rosa Parks

  Giving Up, Tired, People

  Rosa Parks, James Haskins (1999). “Rosa Parks: my story”, Puffin

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• Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Rights, Tyrants

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “Selected Addresses of Frederick Douglass”, p.55, Simon and Schuster

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• I say further that for this great legislative body to ignore the Constitution and the fundamental concepts of our governmental system is to act in a manner which could ultimately destroy the freedom of all American citizens, including the freedoms of the very persons whose feelings and whose liberties are the major subject of this legislation.

  Barry Goldwater

  Feelings, Liberty, Body

  Barry Morris Goldwater (1964). “Where I stand”

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• None of the modes by which a magistrate is appointed, popular election, the accident of the lot, or the accident of birth, affords, as far as we can perceive, much security for his being wiser than any of his neighbours. The chance of his being wiser than all his neighbours together is still smaller.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Liberty, Together, Chance

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• Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Men, Confusion, Political

  "Southey's Colloquies on Society" by Thomas B. Macaulay, 1830.

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• The minorities have been confined to the city by a moat of bigotry.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Cities, Moats, Minorities

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.139, Take Root Media

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• Without justice, there can be no peace.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Justice

  Clayborne Carson, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Stanford University, Emory University (1993). “The Movement: 1964-1970”, Greenwood Pub Group

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• It's time for us as a country to try to come together in ways that freedom was really meant to be.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Country, Trying, Together

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• The failures of the past must not be an excuse for the inaction of the present and the future.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Past, Excuse, Inaction

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• When people are forced to interact to survive, their prejudices diminish.

  Muhammad Ali

  People, Prejudice, Diminish

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• It's not easy to be a martyr in the field of race relations.

  Jackie Robinson

  Race, Fields, Easy

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• We must trust our own thinking. Trust where we're going. And get the job done.

  Wilma Mankiller

  Trust, Jobs, Healing

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• To be able to think freely, a man must be certain that no consequence will follow whatever he writes.

  Ernest Renan

  Freedom, Writing, Men

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• Being able to laugh got me through.

  Toni Morrison

  Laughing, Able

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• The enlargement of liberty for individual human beings must be the supreme goal and abiding practice of any western society.

  Robert Kennedy

  Freedom, Practice, Goal

  Robert F. Kennedy's Day of Affirmation Address at the University of Capetown, South Africa, www.mtholyoke.edu. June 6, 1966.

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• As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.

  Cornel West

  Long, Overcoming, Alive

  Cornel West (2000). “Race Matters”, p.15, Beacon Press

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• Evil must be attacked by. . . the day to day assault of the battering rams of justice.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Evil, Justice, Rams

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

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• This bill would renounce the safe, proper, and acceptable role for Government as a referee of disputes between the governed. It would interpose the Government as a biased protagonist, armed with the awesome authority of the Federal Government, in addition to rulemaking and umpire powers. The broad grants of power to the Attorney General to initiate and intervene in civil actions would go far toward transforming him into George Orwell's 'Big Brother' of '1984,' in the year 1964.

  Strom Thurmond

  Brother, Years, Umpires

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• If the question [before justices of the peace] relate to any point of public liberty, or if it be one of those in which the judges may be suspected of bias, the jury undertake to decide both law and fact.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Law, Judging, Justice

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786”, p.37, Cosimo, Inc.

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• It is an honor to be awarded with such a high rating from an organization as well respected as the NAACP. I am pleased that the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the nation, has recognized my voting record.

  Joe Baca

  Rights, Organization, Voting

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• Here are the values that I stand for: honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values.

  Ellen DeGeneres

  Inspiring, Kindness, Honesty

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• When I hear someone’s in the civil rights business, I oil up my AR-25.

  Michael Savage

  Rights, Oil

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• Martin Luther King's 1963 'I have a dream' speech was a thrilling milestone in the civil rights movement, so enduring that we tend to attribute its searing power to a kind of magic. But Gary Younge's meditative retrospection on its significance reminds us of all the micro-moments of transformation behind the scenes--the thought and preparation, vision and revision--whose currency fed that magnificent lightning bolt in history.

  Patricia J. Williams

  Dream, Kings, Rights

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