Quotes About Activism

I thought of the courage it had taken for those young people in Tehran to go out into the streets holding those simple placards—"Where is my vote?"—with the openness and simplicity of a child, only to be razed down by bullets.

The main thing I have in common with the kids is that we are tired of being lied to...If it is not too late for America to be saved, the young will save it – and the blacks, the Indians, the Spanish-surnamed,the young women, and the other victims of American society. They, if any, will become the conscience that the Country has lacked. They will try to force it to practice what it has preached.

She didn't need to be the Democratic Nominee in order to be a catalyst for change.

As one put it to me once, "I just wish white women would get as concerned about the health and well-being of black babies being born, as they are about me being able not to have babies.

It is going to have to be the have-nots — the blacks, browns, reds, yellows, and whites who do not share in the good life that most Americans lead — who somehow arouse the conscience of the nation and thus create a conscience in the Congress. My role, as I see it, is to help them do so, working outside of Washington, perhaps, as much as inside it.

a man the South African government evidently thought too dangerous to be free, but also by then too prominent to be killed.

D. Frederick Sparks

Blackness is not just black straight men. There are gay men in this work doing amazing work. There are queer folks. There are trans folks. There are gay and lesbian folks, bisexual…. There are atheist black people.

You can reduce environmentalism to six words: don't burn coal, don't eat meat. The rest is detail.

I still believe that change is possible. With enough hard work and organization, there's no reason activists can't stop genocide, achieve nuclear disarmament, eradicate poverty, or end all human wars. But when it comes to the stuff that really matters, the stuff that really counts? There's nothing you can do.

[Martin Luther King, Jr.] gave the 'I have a dream' speech, not the 'I have a plan' speech.

CWC (Church Women Concerned) enabled us as women in that part of South Africa, to see ourselves as ordinary citizens who found themselves in decidedly far from ordinary circumstances. In truth, some of us were not even considered citizens, strictly speaking: the African had, by this time, been completely deprived of that privilege.

I love all those great 'f' words - feminism, folk music.

I love the protests. And if you think about it, what better way to send a message to Wall Street than by sitting in a pup tent banging on a drum.

Choosing whom you love is the most political decision you can make.

Call it peace or call it treason / call it love or call it reason / but I ain't marching anymore

You may protest if you can love the person you are protesting against as much as you love yourself.

My goal is to get peace and my goal is to see education of every child.

I love challenging the status quo.

I love seeing young people take a stance and not be afraid to say how they feel, and protest when they feel things are wrong or unjust.

I would love to meet Martin Luther King. His fearless attitude, leadership, and self-awareness changed our world.

She's an aristocrat who advocates –words worn across centuries—for women's rights.

Nothing's wrong with going to jail for something you believe in. Remember, jail was made for people. Not horses.

Why did she want to go to sea and live the rough unglamorous life of a seaman? 'Because they told me Negro women couldn't get in the union. You know what I told them?' I shook my head, although I nearly knew. 'I told them, "You want to bet?" I'll put my foot in that door up to my hip until women of every color can walk over my foot, get in that union, get aboard a ship and go to sea.