Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) is known as the leader of modern American civil rights, as well as one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in world history.
He was a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and served as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King was also a pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
King led the American Civil Rights Movement for 13 years and made tremendous impacts in the United States and around the world. During this time, he traveled over six million miles and spoke more than 2,500 times. King was arrested more than twenty times, wrote five books and was the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35.
He participated in and led dozens of history-making events and protests, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, numerous civil rights campaigns in Birmingham, Alabama, and the famous March on Washington in 1963, which drew over 250,000 people to the National Mall. That year, he was named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year.”
King is the only non-president to have a holiday in his name, which we celebrate on the third Monday of January each year. Some of his most notable words are written in stone at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., just a short walk from where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
This MLK Day, let’s take time to reflect on King’s legacy, and allow his words to inspire us to pursue unity and peace, and strive for a more unified nation.
Here are seven quotes from MLK that can still inspire us today.
1. “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
From King’s book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, published in 1958.
2. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
From King’s book, Strength to Love, published in 1963.
3. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Also taken from King’s book, Strength to Love.
4. “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
From King’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech delivered in Oslo, Norway, 1964.
5. “We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”
From his speech on the steps of the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 25, 1965, after completing a 5-day, 54-mile civil rights march from Selma.
6. “It is not enough to say ‘We must not wage war.’ It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but the positive affirmation of peace.”
From the Anti-War Conference in Los Angeles, California, on February 25, 1967.
7. “If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.”
From his Christmas sermon given in Atlanta, Georgia, 1967.
Let us all take pause to remember this amazing man and the impact he made in history. Let us strive to honor his legacy by embracing unity and seeking peace with everyone, and be the difference we wish to see in the world today.