Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the ongoing struggle for African American freedom and justice since the Emancipation Proclamation.
In this powerful statement, Martin Luther King, Jr. acknowledges the historical significance of the Emancipation Proclamation as a pivotal moment in the fight against slavery. However, he starkly points out that even a century later, African Americans are still faced with systemic injustices and lack of true freedom, emphasizing the need for continued activism and courage in the pursuit of equality and civil rights.
In practice
Use this quote to highlight the importance of social justice during a civil rights rally.
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
Music is the best consolation for a despaired man
We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
Israel... is one of the great outpost of democracy in the world
One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
Against the persecution of a tyrant the godly have no remedy but prayer.
The power of good is shown not by triumphantly conquering evil, but by continuing to resist evil while facing certain defeat.
Hope and faith. You have to have hope and faith... Long ways to go. Grateful to survive. I's frustrating. Mentally hard. Hard work. I'm trying. Trying so hard to get better. Regain what I've lost... I will get stronger. I will return.
The primary thing I should do, apart from being a good husband, brother, son, and friend, is to be a citizen activist. But I'm afraid it takes away from the writing. Not that anything depends on whether I put an essay in 'The Nation' or not. But you want to participate.
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.
I've had journalists asking me, 'What do we call you - is it handicapped, are you disabled, physically challenged?' I said, 'Well hopefully you could just call me Aimee. But if you have to describe it, I'm a bilateral below-the-knee amputee.'
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.