Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.

Every American deserves to live in freedom, to have his or her privacy respected and a chance to go as far as their ability and effort will take them - regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic circumstances.

I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage. We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us.

The idea of freedom is quite in accord with a general, though vague, sentiment among us; it is an idea of fair play, of giving everyone a chance; and nothing arouses more general and active indignation among our people than the belief that some one or some class is not getting a fair chance.

We live in a moment when the dream of equal opportunity is within reach.

That has to come to an end and end now. No citizen is a second-class citizen in the city of Chicago. If my children are treated one way, every child is treated the same way.

Now we Democrats believe that America is still the country of fair play, that we can come out of a small town or a poor neighborhood and have the same chance as anyone else, and it doesn't matter whether we are black or Hispanic, or disabled or women.

Equal opportunity for all, special privilege for none.

Hereafter in the enlistment of men in the Army... no distinction whatsoever shall be made on account of race or color

Existing legal discriminations on account of color are not based on character or conduct, and have no relation to moral worth and fitness for civic usefulness, but are rather relics of prejudice which had its origin in slavery. I recommend their total repeal.

We are building a country where a person's prospects are determined by their own initiative and hard work and not by the color of their skin, place of birth, gender, language, or income of their parents.

Every citizen, regardless of his race, creed, or color, is entitled to equal justice.

Civil rights are civil rights. There are no persons who are not entitled to their civil rights... We have to recognize that we have a long way to go, but we have to go that way together.

There must not be one law for the Jew and another for the Arabs....In saying this, I do not assume that there are tendencies toward inequalirty or discrimination. It is merely a timely warning which is particularly necessary because we shall have a very large Arab minority. I am certain that the world will judge the Jewish State by what it will do with the Arabs, just as the Jewish people at large will be judged by what we do or fail to do in this state where we have been given such a wonderful opportunity after thousands of years of wandering and suffering.

Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

America is not another word for Opportunity to all her sons.

Whatever advantages may have arisen, in the past, out of the existence of a specially favored and highly privileged aristocracy, it is clear to me that today no argument can stand that supports unequal opportunity or any intrinsic disqualification for sharing in the whole of life.

Treat them just the same as anybody else, give them an opportunity to make a living, and to get an education.

Equality is truly sweet.

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot. Men are not superior by reason of accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart-the best brain.

I'm a human rights activist and it doesn't make any sense not to treat everybody the exact same way. It just doesn't make any sense, it's counter intuitive, it's inhuman and it has to stop.

You cannot say you've achieved equality until EVERYONE is equal and has equal opportunities!

I believe this country was built on a simple promise: that each of us deserves a fair shot.

All men will commence in their present rank and promotion will be open to all men alike, without any distinctions or qualifications, political or otherwise.