Clergyman's

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.
- "Martin Luther King, Jr."

There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that would praise you when you say, ""Be nonviolent toward Jim Clark,"" but will curse and damn you when you say, ""Be nonviolent toward little brown Vietnamese children."" There is something wrong with that press.
- "Martin Luther King, Jr."

There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that would praise you when you say, ""Be nonviolent toward Jim Clark,"" but will curse and damn you when you say, ""Be nonviolent toward little brown Vietnamese children."" There is something wrong with that press.
- "Martin Luther King, Jr."

We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls ""enemy,"" for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called ""enemy"" Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak of the — for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam.
- "Martin Luther King, Jr."

A third reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.
- "Martin Luther King, Jr."