race, class & gender

58 Tweetable MLK Quotes to Reclaim King’s Legacy by Drew Dellinger

Use these with the hashtags #MLKalsoSaid & #ReclaimMLK. 

“All of us are on trial in this troubled hour.”

– MLK (1968)

King on police brutality:

“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” – MLK, Aug. 28, 1963

“The white man does not abide by the law… His police forces are the ultimate mockery of law.” – MLK (1968)

“We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity.” – MLK, Aug. 28, 1963

“We have got to go all out to deal with the question of segregation justice. We still have a long, long, way to go.” – MLK (1965)

“How long will justice be crucified and truth buried, how long?” – MLK (1962)

“Wounded justice lying prostrate on the streets of our cities.” – MLK (1962)

“The beating and killing of our… young people will not divert us. The arrest and release of known murderers will not discourage us.” – MLK

“When we truly believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won’t exploit people … we won’t kill anybody.” – MLK (1968)

“I believe that the dignity & the worth of human personality will be respected one day. I believe this and I live by it.” – MLK (1964)

King on confronting systemic racism:

“The first thing that must be on the agenda of our nation is to get rid of racism.” – MLK (1968)

“The thing wrong with America is white racism.” –Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)

“Large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility & the status quo than about justice & humanity.” – MLK

“However difficult it is to hear, however shocking it is to hear, we’ve got to face the fact that America is a racist country.” – MLK (1968)

“Racism is a philosophy based on contempt for life.” – MLK (1967)

“We must come to see that the roots of racism are very deep in our country.” – MLK

“There must be something positive & massive in order to get rid of all the effects of racism & the tragedies of racial injustice.” – MLK

“White America has allowed itself to be indifferent to race prejudice.” – MLK (1968)

“I am sorry to have to say that the vast majority of white Americans are racists, either consciously or unconsciously.” – MLK (1967)

½: “The doctrine of white supremacy was imbedded in every textbook and preached in practically every pulpit…” – MLK

2/2: “… It became a structural part of the culture.” –Martin Luther King Jr. on white supremacy (1967)

“The great majority of Americans… are uneasy with injustice but unwilling yet to pay a significant price to eradicate it.” – MLK

“There aren’t enough white persons in our country who are willing to cherish democratic principles over privilege.” – MLK

King on the importance of direct action and civil disobedience:

“The blanket of fear was lifted by Negro youth. When they took their struggle to the streets a new spirit of resistance was born.” – MLK

“When [Black youth] cheerfully became jailbirds & troublemakers… they challenged & inspired white youth to emulate them.” – MLK

“We have, through massive non-violent action, an opportunity to avoid a national disaster & create a new spirit of class & racial harmony.”

“I’ve just come to a conclusion that our country doesn’t really move on these issues until a movement is mobilized.” – MLK (1968)

“I’m talking about poor people’s power. That is what is needed.” – MLK (1968)

“Every [person] of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits [his or her] convictions, but we must all protest.” – MLK

“There must be more than a statement to the larger society; there must be a force that interrupts its functioning at some key point.” – MLK

“Non-violent protest must now mature to a new level… The higher level is mass civil disobedience.” – MLK (1967)

“Our power lies in our ability to say nonviolently that we aren’t gonna take it any longer.” – MLK (1967)

“I’m worried today when there are those who try to silence dissenters.” – MLK

“We aren’t going to let this attempt to crush dissent turn us around.” – MLK (1968)

“Our experience is that marches must continue over 30-45 days to produce any meaningful results.” – MLK

“I believe in dissent. We must never lose this.” – MLK

“The greatness of our nation–and I don’t want to see us lose it–is that… it does keep alive the opportunity to protest and dissent.” – MLK

King on economic justice and ending poverty 

“The time has come for an all-out world war against poverty.” – MLK 

½: “The nation doesn’t move around questions of genuine equality for the poor and for black people…”

2/2: “… until it is confronted massively, dramatically in terms of direct action.” – MLK

“Many white Americans of good will have never connected bigotry with economic exploitation.” – MLK

“In the final analysis, the rich must not ignore the poor because both rich and poor are tied together.” – MLK 

“I choose to identify with the poor…. This is the way I’m going. If it means suffering a little bit, I’m going that way.” – MLK (1966)

“I think it is absolutely necessary now to deal massively and militantly with the economic problem.” – MLK, 10 days before assassination

“I still have to ask, why do you have 40 million people in our society who are poor? I have to ask that question.” – MLK (1966)

“Poverty, the gaps in our society, the gulfs between inordinate superfluous wealth & abject deadening poverty have brought about… despair” – MLK

“There’s going to have to be more sharing in this world.” – MLK (1967)

King on the question of “Riots”

“Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention. There is no other answer.” – MLK (1967)

“Riots are not the causes of white resistance, they are consequences of it.” – MLK (1967)

“There are many persons who wince at a distinction between property & persons—who hold both sacrosanct. My views are not so rigid.” – MLK

“Three hundred years of humiliation, abuse and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper.” – MLK

“It is clear that the riots were exacerbated by police action that was intended to injure or even to kill people.” – MLK (1968)

“Our summers of riots are caused by winters of delay.” – MLK

King on interconnection and linking issues and movements:

It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated.” – MLK

“The black revolution is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes…” (½) – MLK

(2/2) “… It is, rather, forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws: racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism.” – MLK (1968)

“Local problems are all interconnected with world problems.” – MLK (1968)

“I’m still convinced that the struggle for peace and the struggle for justice… happen to be tied together.” – MLK (1968)

 “We aren’t going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.” – MLK

Now you have ammo. Seize the moment!

Our eyes tell us that people look different. No one has trouble distinguishing a Czech from a Chinese. But what do those differences mean? Are they biological? Has race always been with us? How does race affect people today?

There’s less - and more - to race than meets the eye:

1. Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide people according to physical distinctions, but according to religion, status, class, even language. The English language didn’t even have the word ‘race’ until it turns up in 1508 in a poem by William Dunbar referring to a line of kings.

2. Race has no genetic basis. Not one characteristic, trait or even gene distinguishes all the members of one so-called race from all the members of another so-called race.

3. Human subspecies don’t exist. Unlike many animals, modern humans simply haven’t been around long enough or isolated enough to evolve into separate subspecies or races. Despite surface appearances, we are one of the most similar of all species.

4. Skin color really is only skin deep. Most traits are inherited independently from one another. The genes influencing skin color have nothing to do with the genes influencing hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability or forms of intelligence. Knowing someone’s skin color doesn’t necessarily tell you anything else about him or her.

5. Most variation is within, not between, “races.” Of the small amount of total human variation, 85% exists within any local population, be they Italians, Kurds, Koreans or Cherokees. About 94% can be found within any continent. That means two random Koreans may be as genetically different as a Korean and an Italian.

6. Slavery predates race. Throughout much of human history, societies have enslaved others, often as a result of conquest or war, even debt, but not because of physical characteristics or a belief in natural inferiority. Due to a unique set of historical circumstances, ours was the first slave system where all the slaves shared similar physical characteristics.

7. Race and freedom evolved together. The U.S. was founded on the radical new principle that “All men are created equal.” But our early economy was based largely on slavery. How could this anomaly be rationalized? The new idea of race helped explain why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took for granted.

8. Race justified social inequalities as natural. As the race idea evolved, white superiority became “common sense” in America. It justified not only slavery but also the extermination of Indians, exclusion of Asian immigrants, and the taking of Mexican lands by a nation that professed a belief in democracy. Racial practices were institutionalized within American government, laws, and society.

9. Race isn’t biological, but racism is still real. Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources. Our government and social institutions have created advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power, and resources to white people. This affects everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.

10. Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn’t exist is not the same as creating equality. Race is more than stereotypes and individual prejudice. To combat racism, we need to identify and remedy social policies and institutional practices that advantage some groups at the expense of others.

Grace Flores-Hughes is the Republican government official who claims to have coined the term “Hispanic” for official use by the U.S. federal government at the end of the Nixon Administration in the mid-1970s.  Click the text above for a link to a 2009 interview with her about that historic moment.

The link above will take you to the text of the Naturalization Act of 1790, passed by the U.S. Congress on March 26, 1790.

Historically, race and racism were an integral component of California’s state constitution.

The text of the document actually reads:

Article II.

Right of Suffrage.

More information about this earlier DNA model can be read here.

The more recently-unveiled “Cheddar Man,” a depiction of the original inhabitant of the British Isles reconstructed from DNA models, has also challenged many preconceived notions about the ancestry of Europeans.