In this article, we share our top picks for the Martin Luther King Jr Quotes on equality. King who was a staunch advocate of equal rights for all citizens knew first hand how people are discriminated on the basis of race. When he was only a kid he experienced inequality at the hands of a shopkeeper:
When Martin Luther King., Jr. was little, his father took him downtown to buy shoes. It was the 1930s, and the Kings lived in Atlanta, Georgia. The shoe store was empty. Martin and his father, Daddy King, sat in front. A young white clerk came up.
“I’ll be happy to wait on you if you’ll just move to those seats in the rear,” he said. His words were polite, but he was asking them to move because of their skin color.
“There’s nothing wrong with these seats,” Daddy King answered. “We’re quite comfortable here.”
“Sorry,” said the clerk, “but you’ll have to move.”
Daddy King scowled. “We’ll either buy shoes sitting here or we won’t buy any shoes at all.” He stood up, took Martin’s hand, and marched him out of the store. As they walked down the street, Daddy King grumbled, “I don’t care how long I have to live with this system, I will never accept it.”
From: Martin Luther King Jr: Dreaming of Equality, Chapter One, “Remember the Seeds”
This might have had a huge impact on King’s life. He wanted every life to start on equal footing, no matter what their race, gender or social status is. He fought for equal opportunities for everyone irrespective of these variables.
Martin Luther King Jr Quotes On Equality:
Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.
Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
In some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men.
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
Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
Equality means dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week.
I could never adjust to the separate waiting rooms, separate eating places, separate rest rooms, partly because the separate was always unequal, and partly because the very idea of separation did something to my sense of dignity and self-respect.
The sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed; We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.
I am not interested in power for the power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral that is right and that is good.
We may have all come on different ships but we’re in the same boat now.
The ultimate tragedy is not oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream – a dream yet unfulfilled.
A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property, widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few;
A dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man’s skin determines the content of his character;
Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.
The quality, not the longevity of one’s life is what is important.
“We must have our freedom now. We must have the right to vote. We must have equal protection of the law.”
“Segregation…not only harms one physically but injures one spiritually…It scars the soul…It is a system which forever stares the segregated in the face, saying ‘You are less than…”You are not equal to…
Martin Luther King Jr wanted to ensure that law applies the same to all people. For him, an individual should be judged on the basis of his character and not the color of his skin. For equality to exist equal opportunities must be provided. No one can rise above their situation if they are persecuted from the beginning.
Read more quotes of:
Martin Luther King Jr Quotes on Love
Martin Luther King Jr Quotes on Leadership
Martin Luther King Jr Quotes on Education
Spread the word. An equal society will be very successful and productive and thus we must strive towards becoming one. Don’t forget to share the quotes with your friend, family, and friend.
So, which one Martin Luther King Jr’s quote on equality inspires you the most? And did we miss some? Let us know in the comments section below.
