Quotes about Activism

The sooner our society admits that the Negro Revolution is no momentary outburst soon to subside into placid passivity, the easier the future will be for us all.

The goal of the spiritual activist is to find inner peace even in externally chaotic circumstances.

The timid may say, "What is the use? We shall be sent to prison." To them I would reply: Even if only two percent of those assigned to perform military service should announce their refusal to fight, as well as urge means other than war of settling international disputes, governments would be powerless, they would not dare send such a large number of people to jail.

A person's a person, no matter how small! And you very small persons will NOT have to die If you make yourselves heard! So come on, now, and TRY!

I believe the gun has no power because a gun can only kill, but a pen can give life.

We must band together to call for gun-control legislation. We must act in ways that promote the dignity and value of human life.

Protest is OK. But protests, according to my King family legacy, should be peaceful.

At five I was already a feminist, and nobody used the word in Chile yet.

June Jordan, who died of cancer in 2002, was a brilliant, fierce, radical, and frequently furious poet. We were friends for thirty years. Not once in that time did she step back from what was transpiring politically and morally in the world. She spoke up, and led her students, whom she adored, to do the same.

There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people.

That's why I want to change Mississippi. You don't run away from problems - you just face them.

Today's average American is more apt to rebel against a tennis shoe not coming in the right color than against the slow erosion of our democratic freedom.