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Angela Davis
The preacher and activist Martin Luther King Jr. was the most prominent leader of the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He led numerous protests, marches, and nonviolent actions, but he’s best remembered for the Birmingham campaign and the “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington, both in 1963. His work is largely credited with convincing Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. However, Kendi and Reynolds argue that his legacy is also widely misunderstood. King is often viewed as an assimilationist who wanted to win white acceptance, desegregate the U.S., and build a color-blind society. While some of this was true early in his life, by the time of his assassination in 1968, he was actually an antiracist socialist who focused on building economic and political power in the Black community. He saw that desegregation mostly benefited Black elites, so he started focusing on economic justice and policy change instead. When he died, he was organizing the Poor People’s Campaign to establish an “economic bill of rights,” including affordable housing and a universal basic income.
Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes in Stamped
The Stamped quotes below are all either spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. or refer to Martin Luther King Jr.. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 20
Quotes
King closed the day with what’s probably the most iconic speech of all time—“I Have a Dream.” But there was bad news. W. E. B. Du Bois had died in his sleep the previous day.
Indeed, a younger Du Bois had called for such a gathering, hoping it would persuade millions of White people to love the lowly souls of Black folk. And, yes, the older Du Bois had chosen another path—the antiracist path less traveled—toward forcing millions to accept the equal souls of Black folk. It was the path of civil disobedience that the young marchers […] had desired for the March on Washington, a path a young woman from Birmingham’s Dynamite Hill was already traveling and would never leave.
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Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes in Stamped
The Stamped quotes below are all either spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. or refer to Martin Luther King Jr.. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 20
Quotes
King closed the day with what’s probably the most iconic speech of all time—“I Have a Dream.” But there was bad news. W. E. B. Du Bois had died in his sleep the previous day.
Indeed, a younger Du Bois had called for such a gathering, hoping it would persuade millions of White people to love the lowly souls of Black folk. And, yes, the older Du Bois had chosen another path—the antiracist path less traveled—toward forcing millions to accept the equal souls of Black folk. It was the path of civil disobedience that the young marchers […] had desired for the March on Washington, a path a young woman from Birmingham’s Dynamite Hill was already traveling and would never leave.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
