Civil Right Quotes

The civil rights fight was a very important fight.

— Walter Cronkite

We have a fabulous civil rights history here in Birmingham.

— Luther Strange

Any kind of civil rights oppression is wrong.

— Bryan Cranston

You can't put civil rights on the ballot.

— Jesse Ventura

I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

— Ronald Reagan

We were born with national rights. We don't need civil rights.

— Chuck Woolery

Few whites are ready to actively promote civil rights for blacks.

— Derrick Bell

When I went to law school, nobody heard of civil rights.

— Constance Baker Motley

Protests, such as those in favor of labor rights, women's suffrage, civil rights and gay rights, helped to make America as great…

— Max Boot

When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the modern Southern GOP was born.

— Steve Kornacki

If Martin Luther King came back, he'd say we need another civil rights movement built on class not race.

— Henry Louis Gates

When I wrote 'The Secret Life of Bees,' I was writing about civil rights.

— Sue Monk Kidd

If surveillance infiltrates our homes and personal relationships, that is a gross breach of our human and civil rights.

— David Blunkett

My earliest memories are of the civil rights era. My earliest experiences were rage.

— Janine di Giovanni

The church is the only mechanism for mass mobilization. That's why the civil rights movement came out of the church.

— Tony Evans

You are losing because blacks are getting their civil rights in the cities.

— David Remnick

“Truth be told, the party was moving in entirely the wrong direction. Ever since 1964, when Barry Goldwater championed “states’ rights”—understood to…

— Joshua Green

Where I come from, if you see your family and friends' civil rights being taken away, you speak up and do everything…

— Cyndi Lauper

Now liberals compare their every riot, every traffic blockage, every Starbucks-window-smashing street protest to the civil rights movement -- which was only…

— Ann Coulter

I think there are profound differences between the civil rights struggle for African Americans and the civil rights struggle for gay Americans.

— Christopher Rice

Forgiveness became a big part of the civil rights movement, juxtaposed against the violence of protesters and law enforcement. King described forgiveness…

— Anthea Butler

As a life-long liberal who has engaged in protests against the government and for civil rights, I am saddened at efforts by…

— Bob Beckel

Rosa Parks was a woman of strength, conviction, and morality. Her action on December 1, 1955, to defy the law made her…

— John Shimkus

“Justice” [Sept. 15]: It appears that the outcome of the civil rights movement has been to replace “Blacks not welcome” with “This…

— Anonymous

A rioter with a Molotov cocktail in his hands is not fighting for civil rights any more than a Klansman with a…

— Lyndon B. Johnson

So much has to do with going beyond treating black people as cosmetic and symbolic items, as opposed to genuine personalities and…

— Cornel West

They came up with a civil rights bill in 1964, supposedly to solve our problem, and after the bill was signed, three…

— Malcolm X

President Obama is a man who had certain advantages because of the civil rights movement. He had the opportunity to go to…

— Danny Glover

Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no…

— Thomas Jefferson

We've seen the worst that human beings are capable of. We've seen what happens when leaders abandon common decency in favor of…

— Max Joseph

In 1694 a law was passed "that every settler who deserted a town for fear of the Indians should forfeit all his…

— Henry David Thoreau

Of course, I have a different vested interest in the gay community, because I am gay, and I would certainly enjoy the…

— Janis Ian

“3. Serving Two Masters Derrick Bell has pointed out a third structure that impedes reform, this time in law. To litigate a…

— Richard Delgado

“The basic move of liberalism is to replace the social centre (normal people) with the margin (foreigners, minorities, deviants) forever. The stack…

— Mike Maxwell

“There was one story that anger certainly lit the fuse of. In the 1960's, in my home town of Jackson, the civil…

— Eudora Welty

“The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in…

— Emma Goldman

“America is a leap of the imagination. From its beginning, people had only a persistent idea of what a good country should…

— Ian Frazier

“Welch became more confident that the press was reporting his words more accurately, but that worked against him because his discourses on…

— Edward H. Miller

“To great effect, Reagan echoed white frustration in race-neutral terms through implicit racial appeals. His 'color-blind' rhetoric on crime, welfare, taxes, and…

— Michelle Alexander

Most Americans who made it past the fourth grade have a pretty good idea who Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther…

— Louis Menand