Who was he ??
Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family’s long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. He enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston. While studying there, he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.
In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation.
In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; meanwhile, he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, “l Have a Dream”, he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested about of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963, and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
*** BEST QUOTES***
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant”.
“A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.”
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.”
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love.”
“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
“I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind’s problems.”
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”
“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” sermon at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'”
“Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God.”
“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.”
“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
“No lie can live forever.”
“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong.”
“So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
“The beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.”
“The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life” sermon at Friendship Baptist Church in Pasadena, CA, February 28, 1960
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
“Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
“Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
“We must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.”
“We will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”
“When people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.”
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
“A lie cannot live.”
“A right delayed is a right denied.”
“A riot is the language of the unheard”.
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” (“All Labor Has Dignity,” 1968.) Revisit the Civil Rights era with these incredible movies about Martin Luther King, Jr.
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence”.
“All we say to America is, ‘Be true to what you said on paper.’ … Somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.” (“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” 1968.)
“All we say to America is, ‘Be true to what you said on paper.’ If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn’t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.”
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity”.
“Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom”
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
“Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness”.
“Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.” (Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence Digital History, 1967.)
“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” (The Drum Major Instinct, 1968.) For evidence of this, check out these true stories of ordinary people who changed history.
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
“For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.”
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.”
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude”.
“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last”.
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“Hate is just as injurious to the hater as it is to the hated. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Many of our inner conflicts are rooted in hate. This is why psychiatrists say, “Love or perish.” Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love.”
“He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love”.
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it”.
“Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.” (“Beyond Vietnam,” 1967.) Like many of these Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes, these vintage photos of unity encourage finding common ground.
“I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.”
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” (Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964.)
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant”.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” (“I Have a Dream,” 1963.)
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear”.
“I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind’s problems.”
“I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.” (“I Have a Dream,” 1963.) Celebrate Dr. King’s legacy with these meaningful ways people celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
“I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother in law.”
“If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent. We are wasting and degrading human life by clinging to archaic thinking.”
“If one loves an individual merely on account of his friendliness, he loves him for the sake of the benefits to be gained from the friendship, rather than for the friend’s own sake. Consequently, the best way to assure oneself that love is disinterested is to have love for the enemy-neighbor from whom you can expect no good in return, but only hostility and persecution.”
“If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.” (Christmas Sermon, 1967.)
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward”.
“In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty”.
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” (“The Most Durable Power,” 1956.) Keep the inspiration flowing with these inspiring John Lewis quotes about voting, education, and social justice.
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him”.
“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?”
“Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God.”
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend”
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend”.
“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love”.
“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love”.
“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”
“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way”.
“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for”.
“No person has the right to rain on your dreams”.
“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”
“Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another”.
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
“One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right when the head is totally wrong.”
“One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love”.
“Only in the darkness can you see the stars”.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”.
“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”
“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” (Speech at Cornell College, 1962.) Here are more powerful quotes that speak volumes in the fight against racism.
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love”.
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think”.
“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will”.
“That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.”
“The beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.”
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education”.
“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”
“The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.”
“The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows”.
“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.”
“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important”.
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“The time is always right to do what is right”.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”.
“The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”
“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”
“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love”.
“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love”.
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.” (“A Proper Sense of Priorities,” 1968.) Now, learn how the clenched fist became a Black power symbol.
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right”.
“There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.”
“There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.”
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
“Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love…violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.”
“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.” (“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” 1963.)
“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
“We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.”
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”.
“We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”
“We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace”.
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” (A Gift of Love, published in 2012.) Here are some more inspiring forgiveness quotes that encourage you to finally let go.
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies”.
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”.
“We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always right to do right.”
“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right”.
“We must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.”
“We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will. And we shall continue to love you.”
“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
“We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now because I’ve been to the mountaintop… I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.”
“We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now because I’ve been to the mountaintop… I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land”.
“What is more tragic than to see a person who has risen to the disciplined heights of tough-mindedness but has at the same time sunk to the passionless depths of hard-heartedness”?
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
“Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice, say that I was a drum major for peace, I was a drum major for righteousness, and all the other shallow things will not matter.”
“You can kill the dreamer, but you can’t kill the dream.”
“You know, a lot of people don’t love themselves. And they go through life with deep and haunting emotional conflicts. So the length of life means that you must love yourself. And you know what loving yourself also means? It means that you’ve got to accept yourself.”
“You will change your mind; You will change your looks; You will change your smile, laugh, and ways but no matter what you change, you will always be you”.
