MLK Quotes & Readings
A Few Readings - Seeking the Radical MLK, Jr.
Statement to Freedom Riders Rally (MLK Jr, Montgomery, May 1961)
Letter from Birmingham Jail (MLK Jr, Birmingham, April 1963)
Freedom's Ring speech, augmented (MLK Jr, Washington DC, August 1963)
Beyond Vietnam (MLK Jr, Riverside Church, New York City, April 1967)
Honoring Dr. DuBois (MLK Jr, Carnegie Hall, New York City, February 1968)
Malcom and Martin (James Baldwin, 1972)
The Unfinished Dialogue of MLK & Malcom X (Clayborn Carson, 2005)
The Part About MLK White People Don't Like to Talk About (Zenobia Warfield, 2019)
A Few Quotes - Challenging Ourselves
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: (August 1963)
“We all have come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to change racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice ring out for all of God's children.”
Statement to Freedom Riders Rally: (May 1961)
“So in the days ahead let us not sink into the quicksands of violence; rather let us stand on the high ground of love and non-injury. Let us continue to be strong spiritual anvils that will wear out many a physical hammer.”
Letter from a Birmingham Jail: (April 1963)
“First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”