I have met Martin Luther King, Jr. all over again this week, and he has taught me some things about race that I didn't know before. I'll write about that later... perhaps tomorrow or the next day. In the meantime, listen to what Dr. King is still saying to us today, almost half a century after his life was snuffed out by a racist, a man who also failed to understand the meaning of race. The quotes below from Dr. King's speeches are inscribed along a wall of the memorial.

“If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.” Georgia, 1967

“I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as a moral example of the world.” California, 1967

“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.” District of Columbia, 1959

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” --Norway, 1964

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” 1963

“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” District of Columbia, 1963


“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single grment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Alabama, 1963

“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.” Norway, 1964

“It is not enough to say, ‘We must not wage war.’ It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace.” California 1967

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” 1963

“Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.” New York, 1967

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” 1958

“We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.” Alabama 1965

“We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs ‘Down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’” Alabama 1955