Selected quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King’s Why We Can’t Wait

 and student interpretations

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor: It must be demanded by the oppressed.”

The reasons I selected this quote are simple because the quote is simple. This quote is straight to the point and that is what caught my attention. This quote means that if someone is being bullied (oppressed) then the bully is not going to just one day stop bullying you, you have to stand up and demand to stop being bullied. To me this quote means around the same thing as a war call, its simple, straight to the point, hardcore, and it makes a person follow what you are saying because it strikes emotion and feeling into anyone who hears it.

                                                -Ryan Allen

“…When you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness’-then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”

Martin Luther King Jr. is trying to explain why they don’t want to wait. Everyone kept telling him he had bad timing and he should wait. That is his response to what they’re saying. I chose it because it is a good example to show how he stands up. It also is kind of telling them why they’re fighting. It shows two things.           

                                                -Kay Brenner

“Like a boil that can never be healed so long as it is covered up, but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicine of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposer creates, to the light of Human conscience and the air of natural opinion before it can be cured.”

In this quote MLK is saying that injustice needs to be exposed as the ugly thing it is, in order for change to occur. If injustice had not been exposed no change would have taken place.

                                                -Meredith Cronin

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

This quote has many different meanings, some different from the context in which it was actually used. To me it means that wrong doings or violations of people’s rights can affect anyone. People shouldn’t remain ignorant because once it starts happening who’s to say it won’t affect you. Almost like an epidemic once someone catches it, it’s likely to happen to you. No one deserves their rights being taken away. If it happens to one of us it happens to all of us. People should be concerned more about injustice on people’s rights. Today this still means something in our society, gay marriages for example. It’s their right to act freely. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

                                                -Chelsea Platte

“It was an army to storm bastions of hatred, to lay siege to the Fortresses of Segregation, to surround symbols of discrimination.”

Martin Luther King Jr. is saying that the nonviolence is an army of soldiers to attack segregation and discrimination which back then was really bad down south and is now frowned upon and I think this quote is very solid and powerful. So powerful that it doesn’t even need the book to say it, the book just adds to it. Like a thesis statement, it’s a statement that you tell about it and prove it to the peers who read it. The people that read this book slowly will catch the good powerful quotes like this one.

                                                -Ryan Milbourne

 “I felt that the white ministers, priests, and rabbis of the south would be among our strongest allies.”

My reason for selecting it is because it shows that even the white Christians and Catholics and such didn’t help the cause. He believed that because they shared the same faith, it should be a no-brainer to help them. He was mistaken. This shows me how strong the segregation in the South was. Even the churches were against the blacks. He talked how they “have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows.” It basically means that they felt they were justified in not helping because the church didn’t do anything to help.

                                                -Trevor Maus

“For hundreds of years the quiet sobbing of an oppressed people has been unheard by millions of white Americans- the bitterness of the Negroes’ lives remote and unfelt except by a sensitive few.”

With the quote I chose, the big difference of whites and blacks is described out of the view Martin Luther King Jr. The years passed by and nothing changed. The difference in thinking better of black skin colored people is not given. The fact, that there are not as many people, which understand the bad situation the African Americans are in.

None of the things, which were supposed to change, changed. It is still the two worlds; the disconnected communities, selected by racial heritage. The fact that bus laws, drinking fountains, bathrooms, and parly are not made to be used by people with an African history.

King also says, that the few people, who are on the side of view within the blacks are sensitive, have us reason to speak up of stand up to let everyone else know, how the difference should the handled and changed in a positive way.

                                                -Leonard Behner

“Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

This quote is important because laws of segregation are unjust and unmoral. To separate the races just because someone is more different than you is not right. This is important to the cause because it is the main reason for the cause. To deny someone their rights as a human being is not only wrong but cruel.

I chose the quote because it speaks to what the movement was really about, freedom. Is freedom not what the country has prided itself on having?

                                                -Marja Wilson

“As in so many past experiences, our hopes have been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternatives but to prepare for direct action, whereby we would prepare our very bodies as a means of laying our case.”

They (Negroes) have fought in the past for their rights and have gotten nowhere; and they are yet again disappointed. But this time they are going to show what the police and other whites are doing to them. They’re going to show the pain that was conflicted on their bodies. The beatings and the terrible attacks is how they are going to try to win the case.

                                                -Ashley Power

“It was the people who moved their leaders, not the leaders who moved the people.”

I chose this quote because it sums up everything that should be kept in mind. To make my statement clearer, if we, or they, had just “followed the leader” and didn’t toss around their own ideas or take a stand without someone’s approval, where would they be? Anybody could have been the “leader”, but what really makes a leaders work and words stand out, is people standing with him or her. The fans of certain music bands motivate and inspire what the next CD will hold. If people want songs about forbidden love, and the band gives them songs about breaking up and moving on, who’s going to listen to it? If the people want more sit-ins and King wasn’t listening, or not giving good reason to not have more sit-ins, would the people still follow, or would they leave and do it anyway? In the long run, if a leader isn’t given ideas about what the people want, he’s going to do what he wants, not knowing if the people want the same thing or not.

                                                -Emily Ackerson

“Ignoring the gains of dismantling segregation is like noticing beauty of rain but failing to see it has enriched the soil.”

I picked this quote because it has to do with segregation, which is what the whole books about, so it is a representation of the book. I also picked it for a better reason. It means that the ending of segregation is a beautiful thing, but people should also think about what the ending of segregation could do to our country. It would help the businesses because the blacks would and could buy goods from whites. It also helped with our fight against communism. If our country wasn’t doing what we were preaching, or in other words; not walking the walk, but talking the talk, like everyone is equal, then the poor countries wouldn’t want to come to our side.

                                                -Sterling Johnson

“The negro turned his back on force not only because he knew he could not win freedom through physical force, but also because he believed that through physical force he could lose his soul.”

The reason why I chose this quote was because I felt that it best describes the way the Negro felt back in ’63 to me. I think this quote explains how the negro wanted to fight back with all his strength but no matter how hard he tried he got nowhere and he felt if he were to try harder the whites would kill him for doing something he believed in.

                                                -Hannah Ayres

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

This means that if people anywhere got away with injustice then it will make other people think they can get away with it and ruin justice everywhere. For example, whites were getting away with bowhing, lynching, and treating blacks terribly which made every white person think they can break the law and kill and torture the black people for no other reason then they look or say something wrong to you. Don’t get me wrong, the blacks were breaking the law by protesting but they were doing it to get rid of a major injustice of segregation.

                                                -Micah Trieweiler

“Looking back, it is clear that the introduction of Birmingham’s children into the campaign was one of the wisest moves we made.”

This quote means that bringing children into the civil rights movement was a smart thing to do. The reason I chose this quote is because it rings the truth. If children had not been allowed in the civil rights movement, they might still be fighting today. Children allowed their tactics to work, especially ones that involved the use of large numbers.

                                                -Andrew May

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

This means that if you want something you have to work for it. It might not be fair that everyone else gets something for free and you need to pay, but if you want it you will pay for it. If people are causing you to suffer, you need to let them know. They might not know they are causing you pain or they might not care. Either way, you need to do something about it because nobody else will help you if you’re not willing to help yourself.

                                                -Alex Fox

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded the oppressed.”

This means that the white people never voluntarily gave up Negroes their freedom because they didn’t want to, but the Negroes wanted freedom from segregation so they demanded it and protested it. They wanted equal rights and since they weren’t voluntarily given to them they demanded it.

                                                -Stephen Pline

“We will get our freedom in Birmingham and throughout the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.”

This means that in America throughout the years, all we tried to do was to get our freedom, Pilgrims and others came here because they were free from kinds and queens. Others came here because of freedom of religion. Immigrants come here to have freedom from their country and to do things that their country wouldn’t let them do. The blacks and women got their freedom, even though it took a long time, they reached their goal.

What this means to me is that everyone in the country wants freedom and others come here to get it so everyone should have it.

                                                -Josh Cairl

“The ultimate tragedy of Birmingham was not the brutality of the bad people, but the silence of the good people.”

I chose this quote because I think if you had to tell the story in a nutshell, that says it all. Even though the bad people like Bill Connor fought against them with no avenge they still kept going. It wasn’t those bad people that ultimately kept them from their goal; it was the genuinely good people who hid in the shadows when they were needed most. They stood by and chose to remain neutral because it was easier than taking a stand. It’s a good thing that most people were eventually able to learn easy isn’t always right. And so the good people finally spoke up after much brutality.

                                                Paige Platte

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor: it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

I chose this quote because I believe that it rings loud and clear to everyone who has ever felt oppressed. It speaks the harsh truth that if you want something you must demand it, not simply ask. No one will voluntarily give you what you want. You must fight for it yourself.

                                                -Amber Gensterblum

“You should punish the robber and not the robbed.”

This means that you should punish the one who is doing the hurtful things and not the victim. This applies to the civil rights movement because the blacks were the robbed. But they were being punished for having their rights stolen from them and now they are trying to gain their rights. So Martin Luther Kind is saying that we should punish the robber (whites) and not the robbed (blacks). I chose this quote because it explains a lot about what the civil rights movement was about in just a few words.

                                                -Dan Quinn

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

This quote was selected simply because it explains in just a few words what they want and why. The quote to me means that in the past many have wanted freedom. But freedom cannot be given to those who want it; if they want to receive from those that denied them freedom first. Freedom has to be fought for or demanded. Without demanding freedom, they will never be free.

                                                -Dylan Schafer

“The children themselves had the answer to the misguided sympathies of the press. One of the most ringing replies came from a child of no more than 8 years old who walked with her m other one day in a demonstration. An assumed policeman leaned down to her and said with mock gruffness: “What do you want?” The child looked into his eyes unafraid, and gave her answer. “FREEDOM,” she said.”

I picked this quote because it shows how bad they wanted their freedom and how they were scared to stick up for themselves and to the white people even though they could go to jail.

                                                -Emilea Fox

“No revolution is executed like a ballet. Its steps and gestures are not neatly designed and precisely performed.”

It means the revolutions aren’t carefully planned step by step. You spontaneously come up with what you do next and it’s not a clearly easy path. In the civil rights movement they planned some things but had to change them and often went as things came. This means to me that change doesn’t happen all at once, it’s not easy, and you can’t plan for everything that happens. You may stumble through it but nothing worth changing or having is easy.

                                                -Chelsea Sandborn