When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom.

When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom.

Lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection.

There is a magnificent new militancy within the Negro community all across this nation. And I welcome this as a marvelous development. The Negro of America is saying he's determined to be free and he is militant enough to stand up.

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.

The white poor also suffer deprivation and the humiliation of poverty if not of color. They are chained by the weight of discrimination though its badge of degradation does not mark them. It corrupts their lives, frustrates their opportunities and withers their education. In one sense it is more evil for them because it has confused so many by prejudice that they have supported their own oppressors.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.