Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity.

History dictates that unresponsive governments force ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

The oppressed will make surer and faster progress if they eschew violence and depend, as they do mainly depend in their organizing and strike activities, on their solidarity, courage, capacity for suffering and sacrifice, and on non-cooperation where injustice becomes extreme

A riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.

A movement that doesn't produce a backlash isn't much of a movement at all.

... a legitimate revolution must be led by, made by those who have been most oppressed: black, brown, yellow, red, and white women—with men relating to that the best they can.

So if you are the big tree, we are the small axe. Ready to cut you down, to cut you down.

The day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he's within his rights, when his own freedom is being jeopardized, to use any means necessary to bring about his freedom or put a halt to that injustice, I don't think he'll be by himself.

You want to shut up every Negro who has the courage to stand up and fight for the rights of his people, for the rights of workers, and I have been on many a picket line for the steelworkers too.

An oppressed people will always rise.

My fellow revolutionaries, liberation is a noble cause. We must fight to obtain it.

Don't terrorize. Organize. Don't burn. Give kids a chance to learn ... The real answer to race problems in this country is education. Not burning and killing. Be ready. Be qualified. Own something. Be somebody. That's Black Power.

The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to the cops just isn't going to work. This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and nonviolence.

Oppression costs the oppressor too much if the oppressed stand up and protest.

[On urban unrest:] The only way to get respect is to be willing to use violence.

Something is stirring in the hearts and minds of the people.

The use of violence as an instrument of persuasion is therefore inviting and seems to the discontented to be the only effective protest

I’ve never been involved in a Civil Rights campaign that was not ill-timed

I am a person who has never used violence himself. My present opinion is that people who have obtained the ballot should use it and solve their problems in that way. In the case of peoples who have not obtained the ballot, and who cannot control their states, I again find in my own mind a division of opinion, which is not logical, but purely a rough practical judgment. My own forefathers got their political freedom by violence; that is to say, they overthrew the British crown and made themselves a free Republic. Also by violence they put an end to the enslavement of the black race on this continent.

Kill As Many Of Us As You Want. We Are Not Going To Die

In all the Arab countries I have been in, the people have said that they were not demonstrating for food. They wanted dignity.

Before, the Negro in the South had always looked on the defensive, cringing. This time they were taking the initiative.

The fight against racism must be seen as a revolutionary one.

The Black Panther Party stood up and said that we don't care what anybody says. We don't think fighting fire with fire is best; we think you fight fire with water best.

Movements don't die, because struggle doesn't die.