Mlk Speech Quotes

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream was a manifestation of hope that humanity might one day get out of its own way by finding the courage to realize that love and nonviolence are not indicators of weakness but gifts of significant strength.

It doesn’t matter what you look like,” said the brave Bumbo McBlue. “It only matters that what you say and that what you say is true!

Martin Luther King Jr., on April 4, 1967, at the Riverside Church, he speaks out against the Vietnam War. People push back against King. They tell him he's not patriotic. In that speech, he says that there comes a time when silence is betrayal. He says he's about to say this criticism because he loves the country, not because he hates the country. He also, in the same speech, says America is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. But he says it's going to be a bitter but beautiful struggle to transform America, because he says the goal of America is freedom. Now, that's perfect. That's brilliant. That's beautiful. He's telling us all the different sides of our country and he's inspiring us to do something about it - right? - but he's also not calling us villains. He's saying that we can actually transform and create and build this beloved community. But King wants us to tell the story of poor people, farm workers. He wants us to end militarization and materialism and racism. So what I think, again, I think everything comes down to storytellers and the story, everything. And I - and I'm serious about that. And so we need to tell ourselves a different story about America.

Daddy said, in 'I Have a Dream', this is a part that most people missed in his speech, 'We must forever conduct ourselves on the high plane of dignity and discipline.' He was talking about how we talk, too. Words are power. [...] Death and life and the power of the tongue. You can murder somebody with your tongue. So when people say 'I'm not violent' because they don't do anything physically, it's not that. For some reason, people think love is some namby-pamby weak kind of thing. It's not. [...] Nonviolence for us is a love-centered way of thinking.

It doesn't matter if your hair’s curly or straight, Or your fur is blue or pink. It doesn't matter if you're tall or short, It just matters what you think!

The modern world is the opposite of the aspiration expressed in Doctor Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' speech. In that speech, Doctor King stated his ideal vision of a future where his children would be judged not 'by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.' There is an even-greater obsession with race today and the external packaging we come in. Content of character is secondary, if not completely irrelevant.

While we remember Dr. King’s legacy, I recall his iconic “I have a dream” speech. Understanding we must make time to propel that dream into existence for every little boy and girl that Dr. King dreamt of then, and for those that we pray for now. We must know that there will come a day when Dr. King’s dream won’t only be remembered to honor his birthday. No, it’s bigger than that. It will be described as the catalyst to all that heed the call to action and bridged the future of equality and equity. His words will be the wind beneath the wings of every boy, girl, man, and woman as they soar upward breaking through every glass ceiling of uncertainty and impossibility. Realizing they are Dr. King’s dream fulfilled.