skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a
better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s
children. ~ May 1965 speech to the Negro American Labor Council.
Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most
shocking and inhumane. ~ Speech to the Second National Convention of the
Medical Committee for Human Rights, Chicago, March 25, 1966.
In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being
fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us
of our civil rights and job rights. ~ Speaking on right-to-work laws in
1961.
You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without
talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the
slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re
really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing
with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry…. Now this
means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means
that we are saying that something is wrong… with capitalism…. There must
be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a
democratic socialism. ~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Frogmore, S.C.
November 14, 1966.
History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement
did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising
the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market
for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of
production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but
history remembers them. ~ Speaking to the American Federation of Labor
and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) on Dec. 11, 1961
There are certain things in our nation and in the world which I am
proud to be maladjusted and which I hope all men of good-will will be
maladjusted until the good societies realize — I say very honestly that I
never intend to become adjusted to — segregation and discrimination. I
never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. ~ Address at the
Herman W. Read Fieldhouse, Western Michigan University, 18 December
1963.
I endorse it. I think it was correct. Contrary to what many have said,
it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in god. In a pluralistic
society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken
and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly
has no such right. ~ King sharing his thoughts on the U.S. Supreme
Court’s decision to ban organized school prayer, in a 1965 interview
with Playboy magazine.
We know of no more crucial civil rights issue facing Congress today
than the need to increase the federal minimum wage and extend its
coverage. ~ Statement on minimum wage legislation, March 18, 1966.
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. ~ The Quest for Peace and Justice speech, 1964.
[
photo by Ron Cogswell]
