The failure to invest in youth reflects a lack of compassion and a colossal failure of common sense.

Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people.

What most did not understand then was that I was not only married to the man I loved, but I was also married to the movement that I loved.

On Thanksgiving Night, 1942, when I was fifteen years old, white racists burned our house to the ground.

To abandon affirmative action is to say there is nothing more to be done about discrimination.

In the area of economic justice, we still have a long way to go. We have too many people who are discriminated against just because they happen to be black or they happen to be a woman or some other minority.

I believe all Americans who believe in freedom, tolerance and human rights have a responsibility to oppose bigotry and prejudice based on sexual orientation.

I can't help but believe that at some time in the not-too-distant future, there is going to be another movement to change these systemic conditions of poverty, injustice, and violence in people's lives. That is where we've got to go, and it is going to be a struggle.

I think that... discrimination in the job market is a very important area where work needs to be done.

If American women would increase their voting turnout by ten percent, I think we would see an end to all of the budget cuts in programs benefiting women and children.

Marrying Martin and the movement perfected my journey of discovery, soothed my yearning to pour out the values and vision within my soul.

A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing to protect traditional marriages.

The woman power of this nation can be the power which makes us whole and heals the rotten community, now so shattered by war and poverty and racism. I have great faith in the power of women who will dedicate themselves whole-heartedly to the task of remaking our society.

I suppose I experienced the personal dilemma that baffles every working woman. What happens when you are expected to be Superwoman, to perform a dozen conflicting tasks at the same time?

It is plain that we don't care about our poor people except to exploit them as cheap labor and victimize them through excessive rents and consumer prices.

We can prevent many people from becoming terrorists by truly listening to people who feel they've been treated unjustly and responding to their concerns with a sense of justice and compassion.

Knowing what I know now, if I could have chosen parents, I would have chosen exactly the ones God selected for me.

Before I was married to Martin and became a King, I was a proud Scott, shaped by my mother's discernment and my father's strength.

During the bus boycott, I was tested by fire, and I came to understand that I was not a breakable crystal figurine.

Scandal sells books; fidelity does not.

If you use weapons of war to bring about peace, you're going to have more war and destruction.

My professional and personal roots in Alabama are deep and lasting.

You have to have people who prick the consciences of the nation.

I think if people really read Martin Luther King, Jr., then they would begin to understand what he really represented.

Civil rights leaders, including my husband and Albert Turner, have fought long and hard to achieve free and unfettered access to the ballot box. Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge.

Our Congress passes laws which subsidize corporation farms, oil companies, airlines, and houses for suburbia. But when they turn their attention to the poor, they suddenly become concerned about balancing the budget and cut back on the funds for Head Start, Medicare, and mental health appropriations.

Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to live his life serving others.

I always knew that I was called to do something. I didn't know what, but I finally rationalized after I met Martin - and it took a lot of praying to discover this - that this was probably what God had called me to do: to marry him.

Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.

The Voting Rights Act was, and still is, vitally important to the future of democracy in the United States.

Particularly in the South, efforts continue to be made to deny blacks access to the polls, even where blacks constitute the majority of the voters.