The United States of American has endured many challenges throughout it’s history, but one such challenge is to end racial oppression and to threat all human beings as equals. The presidency of Donald Trump capitalized on the unsettle divides of the Nation and gave voice to many supremacy groups that were thought to be a thing of the past. Making it very clear of how this is still a challenge that the United States has yet to overcome. The last four years has reminded many that honoring the memory Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is as significant and resounding today as it has ever been throughout history.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on Jan. 15, 1929, led a non-violent resistance movement that brought about massive changes in American culture and paved the way for the end of segregation and expansion of human rights.
Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. on April 4, 1968 at the age of 39. His legacy is celebrated each year with the holiday named in his honor. MLK Day is a federal holiday, though it was not made official until 18 years after his assassination.
Here are some of the best quotes from and about Martin Luther King for MLK Day 2021:
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
“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.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
“So even though we face difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”
“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
“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.”
“We’ve learned to fly the air like birds. We’ve learned to swim the seas like fish. And yet we haven’t learned to walk the earth like brothers and sisters.”
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. “
“Freedom must ring from every mountainside. And yes, let it ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let it ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let it ring from the mighty Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let it ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a constant attitude.”
“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.”
“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.”
“The time is always ripe to do right.”
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
“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 I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
“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.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“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.”
“We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
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