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

My story is a freedom song of struggle. It is about finding one's purpose, how to overcome fear and to stand up for causes bigger than one's self.

Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.

My story is a freedom song from within my soul. It is a guide to discovery, a vision of how even the worst pain and heartaches can be channeled into human monuments, impenetrable and everlasting.

Nelson Mandela sat in a South African prison for 27 years. He was nonviolent. He negotiated his way out of jail. His honor and suffering of 27 years in a South African prison is really ultimately what brought about the freedom of South Africa. That is nonviolence.

Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.

Revenge and retaliation always perpetuate the cycle of anger, fear and violence.

When fear rushed in, I learned how to hear my heart racing but refused to allow my feelings to sway me. That resilience came from my family. It flowed through our bloodline.

I'm fulfilled in what I do. I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes - the finer things of life - would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense.

Non-violence is a permanent attitude we bring to the breakfast table and bring to bed at night.

As one whose husband and mother-in-law have died the victims of murder and assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses... An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation.

Something is wrong that we have to feed so many. Why should there be poverty with all of our science and technology? There is no deficit in human resources - it is a deficit in human will.

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

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.

Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.

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.

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.

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

Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union.

Mama and Daddy King represent the best in manhood and womanhood, the best in a marriage, the kind of people we are trying to become.

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

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.

Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.

I believe that women know if their husbands are unfaithful. They feel it.