To Be Negro In America Is To

We Must Learn That Passively To Accept An Unjust System Is To Cooperate With That System, And Thereby To Become A Participant In Its Evil.

To Accept Injustice Or Segregation Passively Is To Say To The Oppressor That His Actions Are Morally Right.

Wars Are Poor Chisels For Carving Out Peaceful Tomorrows.

I Am Not Unmindful That Some Of You Have Come Here Out Of Great Trials And Tribulations. Some Of You Have Come Fresh From Narrow Cells. Some Of You Have Come From Areas Where Your Quest For Freedom Left You Battered By The Storms Of Persecution And Staggered By The Winds Of Police Brutality. You Have Been The Veterans Of Creative Suffering. Continue To Work With The Faith That Unearned Suffering Is Redemptive.

We Must Dispel The Negative And Harmful Atmosphere That Has Been Created By Avaricious And Unprincipled Realtors Who Engage In "blockbusting." If We Had In America Really Serious Efforts To Break Down Discrimination In Housing, And At The Same Time A Concerted Program Of Government Aid To Improve Housing For Negroes, I Think That Many White People Would Be Surprised At How Many Negroes Would Choose To Live Among Themselves, Exactly As Poles And Jews And Other Ethnic Groups Do.