We Have Only Just Begun: Get Together Because It’s Possible...Andrew “Andy” Young

“The hungry cannot eat hope. They can't drink inspiration. They need clean water. Yes, they need food. 

There is more money, there is more technology. There's more understanding of human need on this planet than ever before. 

And so I cling to the message of my African brothers that say the ancestors are still with us. And if that be true, we have nothing yet to celebrate. We can only thank God that they showed us that it was possible…to break down the barriers that separate the rich and the poor.

It's the first time the Congress got together and Democrats and Republicans voted sanctions and they overrode the veto and and the UN got together and England and France got together with Germany and Cuba and China  and the US.

 …we made it possible to get this far, but you have sung that there's no easy walk to freedom. And I hear Madiba saying, ‘we showed you the way’.

There is the capacity in this planet that the hungry can be fed that the naked can be clothed that the prophecy of Isaiah can be fulfilled in our lifetime if we keep on keeping on.”

--Andrew Young, Civil Rights Leader; Member of U.S. Congress; Mayor of Atlanta, GA; U.S. Ambassador; Minister and Businessman

(Excerpts from Andy Young’s remarks on the occasion of the Nelson Mandela Memorial Service at the National Cathedral, Washington, DC, 12/11/13)

Willing To Give Up The Fight?…Marian Anderson

“No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger than its weakest people, and as long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him (her) down, so it means you cannot soar as you might otherwise.” 

—Marian you Anderson

It Can Be Done...Mary Frances Berry

"The time when you need to do something is when people are saying it can’t be done."

--Mary Frances Berry, Former chairwoman, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Mary Frances Berry, Twitter.com

America, Make This Check Good: Unalienable Rights...Martin Luther King

"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men [women] as well as white men [women], would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

--Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Freedom Is...A Philip Randolph

Freedom is never given; it is won.

--A. Philip Randolph, Civil Rights and Labor Leader

The Normalcy We Seek...Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I know there is a cry today in Alabama, we see it in numerous editorials: "When will Martin Luther King, SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), SNCC (Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee), and all of these civil rights agitators and all of the white clergymen and labor leaders and students and others get out of our community and let Alabama return to normalcy?" The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that recognizes the dignity and worth of all of God’s children. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that allows judgment to run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy of brotherhood, the normalcy of true peace, the normalcy of justice."


--Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March (Speech Excerpt), March 25,1965

From Director Ava DuVernay, SELMA is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Starring David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Alessandro Nivola, Giovanni Ribisi Common, Carmen Ejogo, Lorraine Toussaint, with Tim Roth and Oprah Winfrey as “Annie Lee Cooper.”

Time Will Tell...Nona

Time will tell if we really believe the philosophies that we preach to others.  Will we hold ourselves accountable to the standards that we have called others to live by? Time will tell...
 
--Nona

Doing What's Right...Martin Luther King, Jr.

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”

--Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Dawning Of A New Day...Rev. Bernice King

"If we are going to continue the struggle of freedom and create true community, then we will have to be relentless in exposing, confronting, and ridding ourselves of the mindset of pride, and greed, and selfishness, and hate, and lust, and fear, and idleness, and lack of purpose and lack of love, as my brother said, for our neighbor. We must seize this moment, the dawning of a new day, the emergence of a new generation who is postured to change the world through collaborative power facilitated by unconditional love."   

–Rev. Bernice King, youngest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 2013

http://officialmlkdream50.com

Have Far Have We Really Come? | 50th Anniversary of the March On Washington

          We have come a great distance in this country in the 50 years, but we still have
          a great distance to go before we fulfill the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.
          --Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), August 28, 2013

This past week, some 50 years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legendary “I Have A Dream” speech, two of his children that he referred to in the speech, together with other civil rights organizations and tens of thousands of individuals celebrated moments in history that helped America to come to grips with words from its 1776 Declaration of Independence,

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”[1]

On Saturday, August 24th, Martin King III and his sister, Rev. Bernice King, along with Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network and co-convener of the 50th Anniversary of the 1963 March On Washington, and a host of other civil rights organizations marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the newly erected Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial to remember and honor what happen on August 28, 1963. (See pictures from the 8/24/13 March On Washington)

Fifty years to the day of the actual 1963 March On Washington, many of the “march veterans” and foot soldiers who had participated in the original march locked arms with college students, and led thousands down the original path to the Lincoln Memorial to hear President Barack Obama, John Lewis and others speak about this watershed moment in the history of the Civil Rights movement. President Barack Obama told...


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We Still Have A Distance To Go...John Lewis

We have come a long way in America because of Martin Luther King, Jr. He led a disciplined, nonviolent revolution under the rule of law, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas. We've come a long way, but we still have a distance to go before all of our citizens embrace the idea of a truly interracial democracy, what I like to call the Beloved Community, a nation at peace with itself.

John R. Lewis (D-GA), U.S. Congressman (1987-2020), Civil Rights Leader

The History of This Country Is One Long Struggle...Molly Ivins

It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.  

-- Molly Ivins