Civil rights movement Quotes

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.

— Martin Luther King, Jr

I just couldn't move. History had me glued to the seat.

— Claudette Colvin

Hate is too great a burden to bear…

— Coretta Scott King

“People believe what they want to believe. Even if it isn’t true.”

— Julian Houston

I don't think the riots derailed the civil rights movement.

— Henry Louis Gates

My grandmother had been a part of the civil rights movement.

— Killer Mike

The music of the civil rights movement came from Black artists.

— Jasmine Crockett

Im a child of the Civil Rights Movement.

— Danny Glover

I never remember, like, saying, 'Well, I'm going to belong - join the civil rights movement.'

— Ruby Dee

Look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin,...

— Martin Luther King, Jr

President [Barack] Obama is a man who had certain advantages because of the civil rights movement.

— Danny Glover

In college, I was so blessed to have relationships with those who did the civil rights movement.

— Michael Tubbs

“I loved the land that surrounded me but hated the history that haunted that land.”

— Mark Kemp

The slogan of the American Civil Rights Movement was "We shall overcome!" Donald Trump's new campaign slogan is "We shall overcomb!"

— Michael R. Burch

The so-called civil rights movement as it exists today is used as a Communist program for revolution in America.

— Ezra Taft Benson

I've never been afraid to step out and to reach out and to move out in order to make things happen.

— Victoria Gray Adams

My friends in the Congress, I have known Coretta King since I went south during the civil rights movement as a lawyer.…

— John Conyers

I've been there for so many crossroads in American history. My whole political life spans the birth of the environmental movement, the…

— Barbara Boxer

“Barack Obama so spooked the bigoted whites of this country that we are now faced with a racist explicitness that we haven’t…

— Michael Eric Dyson

What has been adjudicated and established in the wake of Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement is the ability of the press…

— Lowell Bergman

The civil rights movement was very important in my house, and then Vietnam was very important 'cause there were two boys, so…

— Al Franken

America certainly has made extraordinary progress. The collective unconscious of the nation has certainly shifted as a result of the civil rights…

— Michael Eric Dyson

Some of the most moving experiences I've had are just in black churches in the South, during the Civil Rights Movement, where…

— Noam Chomsky

Everything African-Americans - every freedom they have obtained - came from Republicans, not Democrats. All the way back to the Emancipation Proclamation,…

— Rafael Cruz

“The role of the press in the civil rights movement also points to our larger failure as a nation to validate and…

— Wesley Lowery

Yes, it is hard out there. But hard is relative. I come from a middle-class family, my parents are academics. I was…

— Shonda Rhimes

History of America, Part I (1776-1966): Declaration of Independence, Constitutional Convention, Louisiana Purchase, Civil War, Reconstruction, World War I, Great Depression, New…

— Norman Chad

The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action. It is this…

— Dolores Huerta

When I was 15 years old in the tenth grade, I heard Martin Luther King, Jr. Three years later, when I was…

— John Lewis

For many years now, I have been an outspoken supporter of civil and human rights for gay and lesbian people. Gays and…

— Coretta Scott King

The sad truth is that the civil rights movement cannot be reborn until we identify the causes of black suffering, some of…

— Henry Louis Gates

The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an…

— John Lewis

“The rhetoric of ‘law and order’ was first mobilized in the late 1950s as Southern governors and law enforcement officials attempted to…

— Michelle Alexander

“Sometimes in history the name of God has been invoked on behalf of actions and movements that have ennobled the human soul…

— Jim Wallis

“Inclusion on race has been a very different journey, and I worry that for all the progress we have made, we are…

— Dan Rather

“When one person got involved, it took everybody else along. I went to jail first, but my entire family soon joined the…

— Faith S. Holsaert

“It is, indeed, one of the basic moral blindspots of American conservatism that its intellectual and leadership energy have never been focused…

— Martin Kilson

I think this mythology - that we're all beyond race, of course our police officers aren't racist, of course our politicians don't…

— Michelle Alexander

“Most people remember COINTELPRO from the days of the Black Panthers, Yippies, and other revolutionary groups who threatened our government during the…

— David Icke

“This book argues that mass incarceration is, metaphorically, the New Jim Crow and that all those who care about social justice should…

— Michelle Alexander