Voice Matters: It Always Has and It Always Will
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This document contains quotes and brief biographies of influential figures in civil rights and social justice movements. The quotes reflect themes of courage in facing fears and challenging injustice, the importance of nonviolent action over words, and continuing struggles for equality and human rights. The biographies describe civil rights leaders and activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Bayard Rustin who worked to end racial segregation and discrimination in the United States through protests, court cases, and political leadership.
Voice Matters: It Always Has and It Always Will
- 1. Voice Matters: It Always Has and It Always Will
- 2. “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.” Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy. In 1991, Aung received the Nobel Prize for Peace.
- 3. “The proof that one truly believes is in action.” A strategist and activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the largest nonviolent protests in the United States.
- 4. “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Author, politician and inventor Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A prominent figure in the American Enlightenment, Franklin assisted in drafting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
- 5. “There is no such thing as separate but equal.” Known as “the man who killed Jim Crow,” lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston played a role in nearly every Civil Rights case that went before the Supreme Court in the first half of the 20th century.
- 6. “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me...All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play major league baseball when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947.
- 7. “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Civil Rights activist and writer James Baldwin is regarded as a highly insightful, iconic writer with works like The Fire Next Time and Another Country.
- 8. “If not us, then who? If not now, then when?” Freedom Rider John Lewis spoke at 1963's March on Washington and led the demonstration that became known as "Bloody Sunday." He was elected to Congress in 1986 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.
- 9. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to lead a major Western democracy, winning three successive General Elections and serving as British Prime Minister for more than 11 years (19791990).
- 10. “When you stop having dreams and ideals – well, you might as well stop altogether.” Deemed one of the finest contraltos of her time, in 1955 Marian Anderson became the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera.
- 11. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968.
- 12. “If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.” Civil Rights activist, author and poet Maya Angelou, is an award-winning writer best known for her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
- 13. “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” Seamstress and Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, spurring the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement.
- 14. “An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.” Thomas Paine was an English American writer and pamphleteer whose Common Sense and other writings influenced the American Revolution, and helped pave the way for the Declaration of Independence.
- 15. “Make a difference about something other than yourselves.” Toni Morrison was the first African American woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved.
- 16. “An invasion of armies may be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” Victor Hugo is a French Romantic author best known for his poetry and his novels, including Les Misérables.
- 17. Work Cited Biographies available at: Biography.com
- 18. To learn more about McKinney & Associates, visit www.mckpr.com McKinney & Associates was founded in 1990 with a commitment to social justice that has prevailed for more than 20 years. From the beginning, McKinney has passionately and skillfully practiced public relations with a conscience for local, national and international organizations. @mckpr facebook.com/mckpr youtube.com/mckinneypr