I believe that it would be almost impossible to find anywhere in America a black man who has lived further down in the mud of human society than I have; or a black man who has been any more ignorant than I have; or a black man who has suffered more anguish during his life than I have. But it is only after the deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come; it is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come.

The separating of a section of America for Afro- Americans is similar to expecting a heaven in the sky somewhere after you die.

If the ballot doesn't work, we'll try something else. But let us try the ballot.

Revolutions are never waged singing "We Shall Overcome." Revolutions are based upon bloodshed.

America is such a paradoxical society, hypocritically paradoxical, that if you don't have some humor, you'll crack up.

A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.

I have read where Abraham Lincoln said he wasn't interested in freeing the slaves.