Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.
Interpretation
True freedom and justice must be earned through collective efforts, rather than simply given by external forces.
A. Philip Randolph emphasizes that for any group—be it a race, nation, or class—salvation and progress must originate from their own actions and convictions. Freedom and justice are not passive gifts bestowed upon people; they are hard-won achievements that require struggle and determination to secure. This perspective highlights the importance of self-empowerment and the active pursuit of social justice.
In practice
During a civil rights rally to inspire action and unity among participants.
We must develop huge demonstrations, because the world is used to big dramatic affairs. They think in terms of hundreds of thousands and millions and billions... Billions of dollars are appropriated at the twinkling of an eye. Nothing little counts.
Negroes are in no mood to shoulder guns for democracy abroad while they are denied democracy here at home.
Justice is never given; it is exacted.
Since almost all Negroes are workers, live on wages, and suffer from the high cost of food, clothing and shelter, it is obvious that the Republican and Democratic Parties are opposed to their interests.
Negroes must be free in order to be equal, and they must be equal in order to be free... Men cannot win freedom unless they win equality. They cannot win equality unless they win freedom.
If someone tried to deprive you of your rights, you've got to resist it. You've got to resent it. You've got to fight against it.
'T is heaven alone that is given away; 'T is only God may be had for the asking.
I still preserve those relics of past sufferings and experience, like pillars of witness set up in travelling through the valve of life, to mark particular occurrences. The footsteps are obliterated now; the face of the country may be changed; but the pillar is still there, to remind me how all things were when it was reared.
The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection -even though nothing more than the pounding of an old piano -is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.
Oh, I'll live Ender's life, too. It's so much more interesting than my own." ~Val
I think the enemy is self-censorship. In a free society the biggest danger is that you're afraid to the point where you censor yourself.
The church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought.
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