“When we talk about liberation lifestyles, we are talking about being healthy physically as well as economically, politically, and culturally. The battle is in our hands.”
– This concept came about at Alabama’s 1985 Southern Christian Leadership Conference Convention. He reinstated it in his book, “Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land.”
“Afrocentric themes are designed to free us from myths and saturate us in truth about the homeland and our heritage and to empower us with authentic identity for our selfhood and indemnity from brainwashing…”
– “Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land”
“By reserving the penalty of death for Black defendants, or for the poor, or for those convicted of killing white persons, we perpetrate the ugly legacy of slavery – teaching our children that some lives are inherently less precious than others.”
“We must meet this crisis with a renewed sense of movement, with intensified efforts to restore values and provide jobs and job training, adequate health care and housing.”
– “Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land”
“We ain’t going back! We’ve come too far, marched too long, prayed too hard, wept too bitterly, bled too profusely and died too young, to let anybody turn back the clock on our journey to justice.”
– Speech for the March on Washington’s 50th anniversary in 2013