When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, it was a time not unlike today. Our country was divided by war, racial strife, and was less than four years removed from the assassination of a president.
King, at 39, stood for hope and peace, and longed for the day, as he said, when “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.” A dream that for so many has yet to be fulfilled.
Today, we are a divided nation. Racial, religious and gender identify discrimination is rampant and growing. Less importance is given to truth, voting rights are challenged, and violence has become a way of our political life.
Monday, January 15, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect on his inspiring words:
Here are some of his words:
- “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.” – King’s famous I Have a Dream speech
- “Yet, in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.” – Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, 1964
- We must condemn those who are perpetuating the violence, and not the individuals who engage in the pursuit of their constitutional rights. –– From “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.”
- “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” — From his 1963 book, “Strength to Love”
- “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” — From his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech
- “Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love…violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.” – 1964 Nobel Lecture “The Quest for Peace and Justice
- “We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating ‘For Whites Only.’ We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” – I Have a Dream speech
- “Our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.” – at Stanford University on April 14, 1967
- Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. – from his essay, “The Purpose of Education,” 1947
- “Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” –– from his essay, “The Purpose of Education,” 1947
- “An individual has not started liovoing until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of humanity.” – From his sermon, “Conquering Self Centeredness,” August 1957
- “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.” – From his April 1960 speech at Spelman College — “Keep Moving from This Mountain”