Quotes on Segregation

In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me.

Segregation is that which is forced upon an inferior by a superior. Separation is done voluntarily by two equals.

Back then, as a teenager, I kept thinking, Why don't the adult around here just say something? Say it so they know we don't accept segregation? I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.' And I did.

There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry. We must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.

Jim Crow is alive and it's dressed in a Brooks Brothers suit, my friend, instead of a white robe.

I would warn any minority student today against the temptations of self-segregation: take support and comfort from your own group as you can, but don’t hide within it.

I am not a racist in any form whatsoever. I don't believe in any form of discrimination or segregation.

I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.

The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something.

Racial segregation has come back to public education with a vengeance.

We know that segregation is evil. We know that the sickest children should not go to the worst hospitals.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

In many ways, history is marked as 'before' and 'after' Rosa Parks. She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the walls of segregation came down.

If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other causes for prejudice by noon.