Gordon Parks Quotes

I picked up a camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty.

No change can come if those who are impacted the most by discrimination are not willing to stand up for themselves.

I have spent all my life advocating on behalf of the poor, oppressed and marginalized. As a social justice and human rights activist, and now as President of the Republic of Malawi, I have a deep appreciation for the challenges of those on the margins of society.

Facing sexism and racism and classism and transphobia, there are ways to choose to act in those situations, and there shouldn't be a prescriptive list of things that you have to say.

I want to be the voice and the vision for the poor and the powerless.

I'm someone who is inspired by people who've spoken out about different racial and gender issues.

You gotta call it out first; it always has to be called out when we need social change, but this is how social change happens: you call it out. People had to call out child labor. People had to call out, 'Hey time's up; we need to vote. We live in this country.' People had to call out 'time's up' on enslaving people, you know.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress....This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

There's a lot of injustice in the world and it's what I sing about in my music and what I try to confront in my life as an activist.

We don't hate nobody because of their color. We hate oppression!

I'm not going to sit around and be peace and love with somebody's boot on my neck.

There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.

Speaking out is important for me because everyone should be treated equally.

Civil rights happened because youth got involved. The youth stood up and helped to break the pattern that their parents had got accustomed to living. The next generation has to take that stand for whatever it is, socially, that they are involved in.

Where I come from, if you see your family and friends' civil rights being taken away, you speak up and do everything you can to keep that from happening!

I have lectured at the U.N. and travelled widely, giving lectures on human rights and gender inequalities in universities. But this is a life I do not wish to live. I don't want to be a showcase, I want to be in a battlefield where I can stand beside the oppressed and the poor.

Look at the Civil Rights Movement. Look at any kind of fight for change. People had to keep fighting and taking their rights. Rights are never given to you. They have to be fought for and they have to be taken.

There is no such thing as white superiority or black inferiority…all people are equal before God…there may not be under any circumstances a political policy based on oppression, discrimination and exploitation…the task of the Church is to protest against unjust laws.

We will have demonstrations until the injustices that have caused them are eliminated.

Wherever there was injustice, war, discrimination against women, gays and the disadvantaged, I did my best to show up and exert moral persuasion.

I consider myself a social justice person.

If I were a Negro, I'd be fighting, as Martin Luther King fought, for human recognition and justice. I'd rather go down with my flag flying. If you're weak or crippled, or you can't speak out or fight back in some way, then people don't hesitate to treat you badly.

There are people in our country, in our communities who are being marginalized and discriminated against every single day. I fight for them.

It is important to me to keep fighting for the rights of those who cannot.

Through the years, I had became involved with social and political issues, such as racial discrimination.