Marian Wright Edelman Quotes

The better we understand how identities and power work together from one context to another, the less likely our movements for change are to fracture.

I just wish that every responsible and concerned person would step back regardless of race and gender and just take a closer look at what's really going on in the world today, and say enough is enough!

Every social justice movement that I know of has come out of people sitting in small groups, telling their life stories, and discovering that other people have shared similar experiences.

The great thing about social movements is everybody gets to be a part of them.

We need not only one Cesar Chavez; we need a thousand Cesar Chavezes.

We have to realize we are building a movement.

Collectively, we activists are essential to advancing U.S. policy to help empower marginalized people to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty for good.

In the women's movement, women needed men to stand up and say, 'This isn't right.' In the civil rights of the '60s, it took people of all color to demand equal rights.

You have to try to build support around causes. It is uniting to campaign on a single issue, and it is never just a single issue; it's always more than that.

Democracy comes alive not when government does anything, because government cannot be depended on to rectify serious injustices. It comes alive when people organize and do something about it.

Movements aren’t built on leadership but on the movement itself — of individuals taking that first step from inertia to action, as if passing through a doorway

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

The real power of any movement is how we work together with other social justice movements.

Being part of social movements like Black Lives Matter or organizations like NAACP, or any group representing a cause, gives you more resources, knowledge, and power. They can help you use your voice.

Civil rights activists and union activists shared not just common values and objectives but also common enemies.

The protestor I think will speak up for the world's poorest.

If you care about other people, you might try to organize to undermine power and authority. That's not going to happen if you care only about yourself.

We have to, as a progressive movement, organize climate justice and reproductive rights and racial justice. We've got to do this. We can't continue to organize in silos.

You can't expect to go about change - especially change of this nature, when you talk about racial equality and justice - you can't expect to go about or engage in that without resistance, and so you're going to have some people who aren't on board.

Very important thing to keep in mind, that when justice comes and when injustices are remedied, they’re not remedied by the initiative of the national government or the politicians. They only respond to the power of social movements.

There is a power that can be created out of pent-up indignation, courage, and the inspiration of a common cause, and that if enough people put their minds and bodies into that cause, they can win. It is a phenomenon recorded again and against in the history of popular movements against injustice all over the world.

When we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress.

Individual struggles merge into larger social movements.

There are many things we do not want about the world. Let us not just mourn them. Let us change them.

Social movements are at once the symptoms and the instruments of progress. Ignore them and statesmanship is irrelevant; fail to use them and it is weak.