Zack de la Rocha Quotes
Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses...
Rage Against the Machine. "Killing in the Name." Rage Against the Machine, Epic Records, 1992.
William Z. Foster, the 1928 communist presidential candidate, was arrested because his party’s leaflet contained this “inflammatory” slogan.
For a similar sentiment, see Thurgood Marshall.
Senator Glen Taylor was arrested on May 1, 1948, in Birmingham, Alabama by police commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor, for attempting to use a door reserved for African Americans, rather than the whites-only door, while attempting to attend a meeting of the Southern Negro Youth Congress. He was subsequently convicted of disorderly conduct. It is hard to believe that such a thing happened in America but it did. ER was one of the few Democrats to condemn such behavior. She took a great deal of criticism from the Southern Democrats for this column. They claimed she called White Southerners “Stupid.”
The reason this quotation is important, it was the first time in American history that a President had tied racial discrimination to morality. Before that other Presidents had argued against segregation on pragmatic grounds or on legal, Constitutional grounds. Kennedy’s private moral declaration had a huge impact on Black leaders throughout the country who heard about it by word of mouth. That statement forged a bond between JFK and Blacks while most whites did not see anything striking in the statement.
Zacharias Manuel de la Rocha is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, and activist. He is best known as the vocalist and lyricist of rock band Rage Against the Machine. Through both Rage Against the Machine and his activism, de la Rocha promotes left-wing political positions and opposes corporate America, the military-industrial complex and government oppression.
