Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.
Interpretation
True freedom and justice must be earned through collective efforts, rather than simply given by external forces.
A. Philip Randolph emphasizes that for any group—be it a race, nation, or class—salvation and progress must originate from their own actions and convictions. Freedom and justice are not passive gifts bestowed upon people; they are hard-won achievements that require struggle and determination to secure. This perspective highlights the importance of self-empowerment and the active pursuit of social justice.
In practice
During a civil rights rally to inspire action and unity among participants.
We must develop huge demonstrations, because the world is used to big dramatic affairs. They think in terms of hundreds of thousands and millions and billions... Billions of dollars are appropriated at the twinkling of an eye. Nothing little counts.
Negroes are in no mood to shoulder guns for democracy abroad while they are denied democracy here at home.
Justice is never given; it is exacted.
Since almost all Negroes are workers, live on wages, and suffer from the high cost of food, clothing and shelter, it is obvious that the Republican and Democratic Parties are opposed to their interests.
Negroes must be free in order to be equal, and they must be equal in order to be free... Men cannot win freedom unless they win equality. They cannot win equality unless they win freedom.
If someone tried to deprive you of your rights, you've got to resist it. You've got to resent it. You've got to fight against it.
Racism is a physical experience.
Rise up nimbly and go on your strange journey to the ocean of meanings.... Leave and don't look away from the sun as you go, in whose light you're sometimes crescent, sometimes full.
So one time when I was working in this motel one of the toilets leaked and I had to replace the flapper ball. Here's what it said on the package; I kept it till I knew it by heart: 'Please Note. Parts are included for all installations, but no installation requires all of the parts.' That's kind of my philosophy about men. I don't think there's an installation out there that could use all my parts.
The world was to me a secret which I desired to devine.
Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.
The yogi should meditate on a firm seat, one that is clean - untainted by dirt or unspiritual vibrations of others. The thought or life force emanating from an individual saturates the objects he uses and his dwelling.
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