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.
A. Philip RandolphRead
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.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of standing up against violations of your rights.
A. Philip Randolph's quote asserts that when one faces the deprivation of their rights, it's crucial to actively resist and oppose such injustice. This resistance is not merely a passive feeling; it involves a strong emotional response of resentment and a commitment to fight back against those who seek to undermine fundamental rights.
In practice
During a protest or rally for civil rights.
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.
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.
No mortal man could frighten him, no more than the darkness could, nor the bones of his soul, the grey and grisly bones of his soul.
The governments of Europe are afraid to trust the people with arms. If they did, the people would certainly shake off the yoke of tyranny, as America did.
But every time the workers come out in the only way they know to protest against conditions which are unbearable the strong hand of the law is allowed to press down heavily upon us.
All the aggressive actions I do to myself I would never dream of doing in my own life - I am not this kind of person. I cry if I cut myself peeling potatoes. I am taking the plane, there is turbulence, I am shaking. In performance, I become, somehow, like not a mortal.
I would describe and I have described myself to people who ask as a freedom fighter.
When you look fear in the face, you are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'
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