The Negro cannot win the respect of his oppressor by acquiescing; he merely increases the oppressor's arrogance and contempt.

For more than two centuries our foreparents labored here without wages; they made cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal injustice and shameful humiliation - and yet out of a bottomless vitality our people continue to thrive and develop.

Our age is one of guided missiles and unguided men.

Our eternal message of hope is that dawn will come.

... the right to defend one's home and one's person when attacked has been guaranteed through the ages by common law.

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.

What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can't afford to buy a hamburger?