I wish more whites, especially Southern whites, would appreciate MLK. I've met a lot of racists and I've only met one that would honestly like to live in a segregated society. He led a movement that really cleaned up this country and made everyone's lives better. And for Christians, there are few better examples of Christian matrydom in the 20th Century than MLK. He was a great, courageous man.
He's got a lot of great quotes (hard to believe he evidently plagiarized in college, because his speeches in adulthood were amazing), but these are my favs:
- "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
- "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."
- "A man can't ride your back unless it's bent."
- "I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law."
- "It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."
- "If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive."
- "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
- "I owe it to my oppressor to stand up and take the whip out of his hand because if I keep him from beating me, maybe he can get to the Promised Land too."
- "Science investigates, religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power, religion gives man wisdom which is control."