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.
Those who rebelled against totalitarian rule and those who simply managed to remain themselves and think freely, were all persecuted. We should not forget any of those who paid for our present freedom in one way or another.
Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.
As long as Ireland is unfree the only honourable attitude for Irish men, women to have is an attitude of rebellion.
You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.
It is not the intelligent woman v. the ignorant woman; nor the white woman v. the black, the brown, and the red, it is not even the cause of woman v. man. Nay, tis woman's strongest vindication for speaking that the world needs to hear her voice.
When the Bangladesh war happened, people in Pakistan who did not support it were called unpatriotic. My father was in the jail at that time, and a lot of those who knew my family used to call us children of a traitor.
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