Langston Hughes on race

What happens to a dream deferred?

O, let America be America again —
The land that never has been yet —
And yet must be — the land where every man is free.

Humor is laughing at what you haven’t got when you ought to have it.

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.

Martin Luther King Jr.1929–1968I Have a Dream (1963)

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.

Martin Luther King Jr.1929–1968The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)

Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail.

Martin Luther King Jr.1929–1968

• Slavery