Activist Quotes

I came from the most orthodox background you could ask for.

What we resist persists.

A friend said to me, 'Be glad for your troubles - they strengthen you.' Well, if that's the truth, I'm going to be so strong they'll have to beat me to death!

We do not owe allegiance to any candidate because they share our party or our color, but because they share our principles and our conscience.

We are confident that the Supreme Court will soon see the direction that this country is headed and enshrine marriage as a constitutional right for all.

The right to vote is the right upon which all of our rights are leveraged - and without which none can be protected.

The black community has been the foundation of the progressive community in this country for a long time.

Racial profiling punishes innocent individuals for the past actions of those who look and sound like them. It misdirects crucial resources and undercuts the trust needed between law enforcement and the communities they serve. It has no place in our national discourse, and no place in our nation's po

No person can maximize the American Dream on the minimum wage.

Let us nurture the practice of family values, by embracing policies that value families.

Let us invest less and less in war and tax cuts for the richest 1 percent, and more and more in jobs and schools for the other 99 percent.

In this nation, the greatest of all nations, there are no second-class families. That is our great American conviction.

Civil marriage, like all civil rights provided by the government, must be provided equally to all Americans.

As an American people, what is greatest about our history are the many times we have led this world away from hate, towards hope.

Look at the coded language the Right is using against President Barack Obama. Openly calling him a liar in Congress, saying he is 'not a Christian, he was not born here, he is not one of us.' That makes addressing such issues trickier for the first African-American in the White House.

Great things happen in small places. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville.

Keep hope alive!

Music of all arts should be expansive and inclusive.

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.

When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indifferent to walk through.

The law protects you from being abused. It doesn't threaten your lifestyle for someone else to have the right to exhibit their lifestyle.

A man who cannot be enticed by money or intimidated by the threat of jail or death has two of the strongest weapons that anyone has to offer.

America needs young people to be inspired to choose sacrifice over greed.

What is the American dream? The American dream is one big tent. One big tent. And on that big tent you have four basic promises: equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access, and fair share.

Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

If there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart.

Our dreams must be stronger than our memories. We must be pulled by our dreams, rater than pushed by our memories.

Your children need your presence more than your presents.

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.

America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth.