Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

A riot is the language of the unheard.

The rich become richer and the poor become poorer is a cry heard throughout the whole civilized world.

I don't think anything changes until ideas change. The usual American viewpoint is to believe that something is wrong with the person.

I have always thought that the rapid economic development of South Africa would in the long run prove to be incompatible with the government's racial policies, and recent events have tended to confirm my opinion.

We know that in our free market economy some will prosper more than others. What we don't accept is the idea that some folks won't even get a chance.

Riot is the voice of the unheard.

It was not until I got down to Latin America that I began to get a political education. Whatever my ideas when I went down there, I saw things around me every day that influenced me. I saw the terrible economic and social conditions, and the injustices that could not be ignored.

There is a lot of inequality in Colombia. We have to correct that.

I think it's important to realize that law enforcement does do a very good job oftentimes of trying to ensure the safety and security of their people. But oftentimes, where they fail is communities of color and in lower socioeconomic status communities where they discriminate against these people.

America certainly is a great country with plenty of freedoms, but there are a lot of systemic issues that need to change.

America is built on the labors of the oppressed.

Extreme inequality is no temporary blip. It is hard-wired into our economies.

Until we fix the deep-rooted problems of economic inequality, we cannot expect young people to experience the best childhood and adolescence.

We will never address the race-based, systemic barriers to health care, equal housing and education without investing in underserved communities.

The anger that you see expressed out there in Los Angeles, in my district this evening, is a righteous anger, and it's difficult for me to say to the people, "Don't be angry." When people are angry and enraged, they do do senseless things. They do act even sometimes out of character, and that's why it is the responsibility of America to try and avoid putting people in these kinds of situations.

The switch has been built. Maybe you trust Barack Obama not to throw that switch, and maybe you trust George Bush not to throw that switch, but as we look towards the future, we see inequality becoming more and more acute. We're seeing more and more protests against cops and this kind of thing. We're also seeing more and more natural disasters. We're seeing more and more environmental insecurity.

You have this response of angry young people, with a war going on in Vietnam, a poverty program that was insufficient, and police brutality.

As inequality grows, the basic bonds of social fraternity are fraying - as we discussed in regard to Occupy Wall Street. As tensions increase, people will become more willing to engage in protest. But that moment is not now.

Riots are the voices of the unheard.

We are sitting on many powder kegs. Whether it's Ferguson, or St Louis, or like the other night, or Baltimore. Or different parts of Chicago.

White Americans must be made to understand the basic motives underlying Negro demonstrations. Many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations are boiling inside the Negro, and he must release them. It is not a threat but a fact of history that if an oppressed people's pent-up emotions are not nonviolently released, they will be violently released.

Since his inauguration, Trump has signed numerous executive orders that negatively impact poor, black and brown, queer, Muslim, and other communities.

Revolutions can be messy but they can't be perceived as unjust.

Oppression doesn't disappear just because you decided not to teach us that chapter.

It really is systematic oppression that is so deeply ingrained into the very fabric of American society... Shedding a light on it, in whatever way possible, is the only way to create change.