MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. | In his own words

“If the white mobs of Little Rock choose to be un-Christian and disgracefully barbaric in their acts, you must continue to be Christian and dignified in yours.” – King responding to the racial unrest surrounding the decision to allow nine black students to integrate Central High School in September 1957 in Little Rock, Ark.

“You gave to this world wonderful children. They didn’t live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives. Their lives were distressingly small in quantity, but glowingly large in quality.” – Eulogy for the four girls killed in the Sept. 15, 1963, bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.

“Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.”

“The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” – Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 1963

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” – “Strength to Love”

“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.” – “A Time to Break Silence” speech April 4, 1967, denouncing the Vietnam War

“We’re not going to Washington to beg. We’re going to Washington to demand that which is ours. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m going to Washington to collect.” – January 1968 sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to outline his Poor People’s Campaign