“When John Kennedy was assassinated I was twenty-three, a stockbroker on Wall Street and married, and I never ever thought that politics would be anything that I would be a part of. But I realized that I had to get involved. Then, when Martin Luther King was assassinated and the Vietnam War was raging, I felt that my world was falling apart. I had these two beautiful children - three and one - and I just said, "I have to make it better."” WorldChildrenSaidTwoWarWould BeBeautifulFallThreeFeltStreetsWallKingsInvolvedMarriedTwentiesRageI RealizedVietnamFalling ApartLutherGet InvolvedVietnam WarStockbrokersJohn Kennedy Author:Barbara Boxer
“The thing that would probably surprise most people was that Dr. Martin Luther King was a very reluctant leader. He felt very shocked at times that he had been chosen for this path, but he also understood that he was chosen for this path. He had several moments of acute doubt as to if he was up for the task - when people were injured in the protests he took it very personally, let alone when they were killed.” PeopleIfsMomentsFeltLeaderPathDoubtKingsUnderstoodTasksSurpriseChosenProtestDrsShockedLutherInjuredReluctantDr Martin Luther King Author:David Oyelowo
“Dr. Martin Luther King was never a man to say 'I've got this' as the leader of the movement. He wasn't always sure that his decisions were correct, because he knew every decision he made was putting lives at risk, including his and his family's lives.” MenMadeDecisionLeaderRiskMovementKingsIncludingDrsLutherDr Martin Luther King Author:David Oyelowo
“Sometimes, Barack Obama is Martin Luther King, sometimes, he a black militant from the Sixties, then he's a Baptist minister. He can be so different. There's not yet an Obama voice.” DifferentSometimesBlackVoiceKingsBarackMinistersSixtyLutherBaptistsMilitant Author:Shelby Steele
“There never has been a desire on the part of the government that the struggle of Black people in America should be linked to the struggle of our people in every part of the earth. Every leader that was international in scope and in reach became the target of the government - Paul Robeson, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Kwame Ture and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Any Black leader who would try to connect us to our brothers and sisters in Africa and Asia were seen as a threat and became a target.” PeopleShouldTryingHas BeensGovernmentEarthAmericaDesireBlackLeaderStruggleBrotherKingsThreatInternationalTargetBlack PeopleHonorableAsiaBrothers And SistersLinkedScopeLutherMuhammadElijahElijah MuhammadHonorable Elijah MuhammadDubois Author:Louis Farrakhan
“People can do bad things with free speech as well as good. You have to defend the Ku Klux Klan as well as Martin Luther King. It's like that. If you're going to defend the principle, then you have to defend people who use the principle badly.” PeopleIfsWellsUseCan DoPrinciplesKingsSpeechBad ThingsFree SpeechLutherKu Klux Klan Author:Salman Rushdie
“The only politician anybody ever believed was Kennedy, anyway. Kennedy, Martin Luther King - civil rights always turns out in bloody war. Where's his dream now? When is a change going to come - as Sam Cooke said - for blacks in America? Anyone who does tell the truth gets a bullet in the head, y'know what I mean?” KnowsMeanDoeSaidWarDreamAmericaTurnsRightsKingsPoliticianCivil RightsTelling The TruthBloodyBulletsLutherSam Cooke Author:Shane MacGowan
“Martin Luther King was bumped off unjustly, Adam Clayton Powell was bumped off unjustly, they took my title unjustly, they killed Megers Ever unjustly, all the integrators who love white folks, was unjustly kicked out of Washington, they've been deprived of education and poverty throughout the country.” CountryWhitePovertyKingsFolksTitlesAdamDeprivedLuther Author:Muhammad Ali
“My daddy, Rev. A. D. King, my granddaddy, Martin Luther King, Senior - we are a family of faith, hope and love.” KingsAnd LoveSeniorDaddyLutherHope And LoveFaith HopeFaith Hope And LoveGranddaddy Author:Alveda King
“We wouldn't be as far along as a country if we didn't take on some of Martin Luther King's ways that he instilled in us.” IfsWayCountryKingsLuther Author:Rodney King
“People look at me like I should have been like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. I should have seen life like that and stay out of trouble, and don't do this and don't do that. But it's hard to live up to some people's expectations.” PeopleShouldLooksHas BeensHardTroubleKingsExpectationsShould HaveParksLook At MeLutherShould Have BeenRosa Author:Rodney King
“The greatest difference between now and 1964, when I began teaching, is that public policy has pretty much eradicated the dream of Martin Luther King.” DreamDifferencesTeachingPolicyKingsLutherPublic Policy Author:Jonathan Kozol
“When I was teaching in the 1960s in Boston, there was a great deal of hope in the air. Martin Luther King Jr. was alive, Malcolm X was alive; great, great leaders were emerging from the southern freedom movement.” DealsLeaderAliveAirTeachingMovementKingsSouthernBostonLuther1960sGreat LeaderEmerging Author:Jonathan Kozol
“The White man pays Reverend Martin Luther King so that Martin Luther King can keep the Negro defenseless.” MenWhitePayKingsWhite ManLutherDefenselessReverends Author:Malcolm X
“My sense of religion is Einstein's sense of relativity. I don't believe in God. I believe that energy never dies. So the possibility exists that you might be breathing in some other form of Moses or Buddha or Muhammad or Bobby Kennedy or Roosevelt or Martin Luther King or Jesus.” BelieveMightFormDiesJesusEnergyI BelievePossibilityKingsDon't BelieveBreathingBelieve In GodLutherMosesMuhammadRelativityBobby Kennedy Author:Mandy Patinkin
“What I've always said is that I'm opposed to institutional racism, and I would've, had I've been alive at the time, I think, had the courage to march with Martin Luther King to overturn institutional racism, and I see no place in our society for institutional racism.” ThinkingSaidCourageAliveKingsRacismOur SocietyRacistMarchLutherInstitutional Racism Author:Rand Paul
“I grew up in the sixties watching B.B. King and Tito Puente and Miles Davis and Coltrane, everybody, Marvin Gaye, Jimi. And at the same time, with my left eye I was watching Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mother Teresa.” EyeMotherLeftGrewKingsGrew UpMilesSixtyLutherTeresaMarvinColtraneChavezLeft EyeTito Author:Carlos Santana
“Each year on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth, America has the opportunity to reflect on our nation's progress towards the realization of his dream.” YearsDreamAmericaOpportunityNationsProgressBirthKingsRealizationLutherAnniversary Author:Adam Schiff
“I have been inspired by Martin Luther King and how he inspired a movement. I have learned that a cause must be organic; if it is to have an impact it must belong to those who join the movement and not those who lead it.” IfsHas BeensCausesMovementKingsImpactInspiredI Have LearnedLuther Author:Simon Sinek
“In 1974, when I started working with the material that became Horses, a lot of our great voices had died. We'd lost Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, and people like Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.” PeopleLostVoiceMaterialsKingsHorseDiedLutherHendrixGreat Voice Author:Patti Smith
“From time to time, you have seminal personalities who really change the way the world sees itself - people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela. Warren Buffett is that kind of person in the business world.” PeopleWorldWayKindPersonsPersonalityKingsLutherNelsonBusiness WorldBuffett Author:Guy Spier
“I was raised in Arizona, and I went to public school, and the extent of my knowledge of the civil-rights movement was the story of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. I wonder how much my generation knows.” KnowsStoriesSchoolWonderRightsGenerationsMovementKingsRaisedCivil RightsParksLutherPublic SchoolCivil Rights MovementMy GenerationArizonaRosa Author:Emma Stone
“The leaders who we admire who have been able to bring great change in the past - Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela - they're all inspirational religious leaders and smart tacticians. It would be nice to find the Muslim Gandhi, wouldn't it?” Has BeensWould BeAblePastReligiousLeaderNiceKingsSmartAdmireBeing NiceLutherNelsonGreat ChangeReligious Leaders Author:Dennis C. Blair
“I took an interest in the Civil Rights Movement. I listened to Martin Luther King. The Vietnam War was raging. When I was 18, I was eligible for the draft, but when I went to be tested, I didn't qualify.” WarInterestRightsMovementKingsRageCivil RightsVietnamTestedLutherVietnam WarCivil Rights MovementCivil Right Movement Author:Radhanath Swami
“You supposed to be able to do anything in this world. That's what Martin Luther King told me.” WorldAbleThis WorldKingsSupposed To BeLuther Author:Lil Wayne
“We will not allow this day of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial to go without somebody going to jail.” KingsThis DayJailLutherMemorial Author:Cornel West
“I wasn't predicted to be anything. I just followed an inner spirit, and it put me in the right place and the right time. I didn't want to be the mayor of Atlanta. I didn't want to run for Congress. I didn't want to work for Martin Luther King Jr. I wanted to work close to him and be a writer and write about the movement.” WantWritingRunningWantedSpiritMovementKingsCongressRight TimeLutherRight PlaceMayorsAtlanta Author:Andrew Young
“I think that not only do saints make poor role models, they are incapable in one sense of identifying radically with those of us who are mere mortals. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s mortality says to us that here's a figure who got up every day of his life facing tremendous odds and yet overcame them.” ThinkingPoorRolesFiguresKingsModelsMereSaintMortalsMortalityRole ModelsOddsIncapableLutherIdentifyingMere Mortals Author:Michael Eric Dyson
“I think we have to face right in the center of the hurricane, if you will, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s foibles and faults. I think that we do no good to ourselves and do no honor to him by pretending that he did not fail, that he did not wrestle greatly and, at times, surrender to his own sins and his own faults and failures.” IfsThinkingFacesSinFailingKingsHonorFaultsSurrenderPretendingLutherHurricanesFoibles Author:Michael Eric Dyson
“The library of my elementary school had this great biography section, and I read all of these paperback biographies until they were dog-eared. The story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Madame Curie and Martin Luther King and George Washington Carver and on and on and on.” StoriesSchoolDogKingsLibraryBiographiesSectionsLutherElementary SchoolEleanorBiographersCarverMy BiographyMadame CurieReading Biographies Author:Christine Quinn
“I figure if Doc is right about the time I have left,I should wrap up my adolescence in the next few days, get into my early productive stages about the third week of school, go through my midlife crisis during Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, redouble my efforts at productivity and think about my legacy, say, Easter, and start cashing in my 401(k)s a couple weeks before Memorial Day.” IfsThinkingShouldSchoolNextLeftEffortWeekStageFiguresCoupleKingsThirdsCrisisProductivityLegacyProductiveAdolescenceEasterLutherWrapsMemorialMemorial DayMidlifeMidlife Crisis Author:Chris Crutcher