Quotes About Civil rights

There may be some rights—"natural," "human," or otherwise—that should also be civil rights. But if we desire to give such rights the protection of the law, our recourse is to a legislature or to the amendment procedures of the Constitution. We must not look to politicians, or sociologists—or the courts—to correct the deficiency.

It so happens that I am in agreement with the objectives of the Supreme Court as stated in the Brown decision.

Rosa Parks wasn't the first one to rebel against the segregated seats. I was the first one.

I recall saying that civil rights organizations, when they demand more than is legitimate, it hurts their position.

The recognition of rights for women and minorities became a large part of my understanding of what this country is all about.

Martin Luther King Jr., recognized bias when he saw it, knew what he was talking about.

I cannot reconcile monitoring certain people for no reason other than their religion with the freedom of religion we have here in America.

Dr. King gave his life to peace and justice and reconciliation between people, black and white, rich and poor, and he was a great hero for not only people who were oppressed in our country but for people who believed in justice both here and around the world.

There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.

The question was never whether stop, question and frisk should be allowed; it was how it should be done. Those who claimed it should be outlawed entirely reduced a nuanced issue to an either-or argument, and unwisely answered it with a blanket ban.

The Constitution, as originally drawn, made no reference to the fact that all Americans wre considered equal members of society.

I think police brutality has been going on since - I don't know - ever since I can remember and, you know, hearing about it in my childhood.

Ossie Davis is one of my heroes for civil rights and things like that.

I'm totally against straight marriage - even though I'm married. I don't think heterosexual marriage is any of the government's business.

It is difficult to see how Gandhi's methods could be applied in a country where opponents of the regime disappear in the middle of the night and are never heard of again. Without a free press and the right of assembly, it is impossible not merely to appeal to outside opinion, but to bring a mass movement into being, or even to make your intentions known to your adversary. Is there a Gandhi in Russia at this moment? And if there is, what is he accomplishing?

In no instance have . . . the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people. James Madison, U.S. President

The Underground Railroad was the first integrated civil rights movement. And it's a great example of when we work together, what we can go against. Which is 600 miles of crazy terrain being chased by slave catchers to get people to be what they should be in the first case - which is free.

It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated.

The Klan had used fear, intimidation and murder to brutally oppress over African-Americans who sought justice and equality and it sought to respond to the young workers of the civil rights movement in Mississippi in the same way.

In 1968, the sanitation workers of Memphis tried to form a union. The city resisted. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to support them. That was where he lost his life.

It was to carry the American democratic journey beyond these failings that Black citizens and civil rights workers risked unemployment, violence and death.

Dr. King's last campaign was a labor struggle. Many people are aware that King was assassinated in Memphis in the spring of 1968. Less well-known is what drew him there: solidarity with city sanitation workers, who, without the benefit of union representation, were rising up to protest humiliating pay and deplorable working conditions.

Historians have often censored civil rights activists' commitment to economic issues and misrepresented the labor and civil rights movements as two separate, sometimes adversarial efforts. But civil rights and workers' rights are two sides of the same coin.

Martin Luther King, with whom I worked very closely, became very distressed when a number of the ministers working for him wanted him to dismiss me from his staff because of my homosexuality.