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Quote by Jeanne Theoharis

“Rosa Parks drew solace & sustenance from the long history of Black resistance before her time, placing her action & the Montgomery bus boycott in the continuum of Black protest. Her speech notes during the boycott read: 'Reading histories of others--Crispus Attucks through all wars--Richard Allen--Dr. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. & Jr. Women Phyllis Wheatley--Sojourner Truth--Harriet Tubman, Mary McLeod Bethune. For Parks, the ability to keep going, to know that the struggle for justice was possible amidst all the setbacks they encountered, was partly possible through reading & referencing the long Black struggle before her.”

Quote by Jeanne Theoharis

Book:A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History
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A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History

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Jeanne Theoharis

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“But the reactionaries were not in retreat. Many of them had predicted violence, and such predictions are always a conscious or unconscious invitation to action. When people, especially in public office, talk about bloodshed as a concomitant of integration, they stir and arouse the hoodlums to acts of destruction, and often work under cover to bring them about. In Montgomery several public officials had predicted violence, and violence there had to be if they were to save face.”

ViolenceCivil RightsOfficialsIntegrationPoliticiansReactionariesBloodshedPublic FiguresMontgomery Bus Boycott
Book:Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
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“Together with a number of Negro and white reporters, I attended [Martin Luther] King's packed church. He spoke simply, emphasizing the nonviolent nature of the struggle, and told his congregation: "We are concerned not merely to win justice in the buses but rather to behave in a new and different way--to be nonviolent so that we may remove injustice itself, both from society and from ourselves. This is a struggle which we cannot lose, no matter what the apparent outcome, if we ourselves succeed in becoming better and more loving people.”

LoveStruggleSelf ImprovementResistanceCivil RightsNonviolenceMartin Luther King JrMlkMontgomery Bus Boycott
Book:Down the Line: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
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“Feeling that our demands were moderate, I had assumed that they would be granted with little question; I had believed that the privileged would give up their privileges on request. This experience, however, taught me a lesson. I came to see that no one gives up his privileges without strong resistance.”

PrivilegeResistanceCivil RightsNegotiationCivil Rights MovementWhite PrivilegeMontgomery Bus Boycott
Book:Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
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“Ordinarily, a person leaving a courtroom with a conviction behind him would wear a somber face. But I left with a smile. I knew that I was a convicted criminal, but I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice. It was the crime of seeking to instill within my people a sense of dignity and self-respect. It was the crime of desiring for my people the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was above all the crime of seeking to convince my people that noncoöperation with evil is just as much a moral duty as is coöperation with good.”

JusticeCivil RightsProtestConvictionsMontgomery Bus Boycott
Book:Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
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“The bus struggle in Montgomery, Alabama, is now history. As the integrated buses roll daily through the city they carry, along with their passengers, a meaning-crowded symbolism. Accord among the great majority of passengers is evidence of the basic good will of man for man and a portent of peace in the desegregated society to come. Occasional instances of discord among passengers are a reminder that in other areas of Montgomery life segregation yet obtains with all of its potential for group strife and personal conflict. Indeed, segregation is still a reality throughout the South. Where do we go from here? Since the problem in Montgomery is merely symptomatic of the larger national problem, where do we go not only in Montgomery but all over the South and the nation? Forces maturing for years have given rise to the present crisis in race relations. What are these forces that have brought the crisis about? What will be the conclusion? Are we caught in a social and political impasse, or do we have at our disposal the creative resources to achieve the ideals of brotherhood and harmonious living?”

FutureRacismCivil RightsIntegrationAfrican AmericansBlacksSegregationRace RelationsMontgomeryMontgomery Bus Boycott
Book:Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
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“I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. I have tried to understand why it should be considered a kind of credit and a handsome thing to belong to a human race that has vivisectors in it.”

AnimalsAnimal WelfareAnimal CrueltyVivisectionAnti Vivisection
Author:Mark Twain
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“In truth, the epoch is gone in which we had the impression that the masses of society could be guided by reason and by insights into their situation of life to achieve social improvement with their own strength. In truth, the days are gone in which the masses have a function in shaping society. It has been shown that the masses can be completely molded, that they are unconscious and capable of adapting themselves to any kind of power or infamy.”

PropagandaFascismMarxismTotalitarianismFake NewsMass Culture19691935Mass ManipulationMass Movements
Book:The Mass Psychology of Fascism
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