The March on Washington was a March for Jobs and Freedom. There are still too many people who are unemployed or underemployed in America - they're black, white, Latino, Native American and Asian American.
John LewisRead
The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the integral role of faith in the civil rights movement and the moral obligation to combat injustice.
John Lewis highlights how deeply faith informed the actions of participants in the civil rights movement. For many, their struggle against segregation and racial discrimination was not only a social or political endeavor but a profound expression of their spiritual beliefs. They viewed their fight for equality as a calling to fulfill a divine mandate, reinforcing the idea that faith can inspire courage and motivate individuals to take action against injustice.
Themes
FaithCivil RightsJusticeInjusticeSegregationDiscriminationActivism
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of moral conviction in activism.
More from John Lewis
All quotes →The scars and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in the American society.
John LewisRead
Customs, traditions, laws should be flexible, within good reason, if that is what it takes to make our democracy work.
John LewisRead
I say to people today, 'You must be prepared if you believe in something. If you believe in something, you have to go for it. As individuals, we may not live to see the end.'
John LewisRead
We need someone who is going to stand up, speak up, and speak out for the people who need help, for the people who have been discriminated against.
John LewisRead
If it hadn't been for that march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, there would be no Barack Obama as President of the United States of America.
John LewisRead
Similar quotes
Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up.
Lee Kuan YewRead
There are some fires you can't get out of- you've got to go through the fire - you've got to go through the flood - you've got to go through the test - you've got to go through the struggle that you might decrease and he might increase.
T. D. JakesRead
Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge. Some of us have ventured out nevertheless, and so far we have not fallen off. It is my faith, my feminist faith, that we will not.
Andrea DworkinRead
I get called an adrenaline junkie every other minute, and I'm just fine with that.
Steve IrwinRead
Harry, you wonderful boy, you brave, brave man.
J. K. RowlingRead
The miners lost because they had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets. In the end, bayonets always win.
Mary Harris JonesRead