Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 15, 2007

Martin Luther King day is celebrated the 3rd Monday in January. It became a national holiday January 20, 1986 after it was signed into law, in 1983, by President Ronald Reagan.

Nobel Peace Prize winner, Martin Luther King Jr., is well known for his work in Civil Rights and his "I Have A Dream Speech" is known, at least in part, by all. Here are some of his other less famous, but equally poignant, quotes.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

" Man was born into barbarism when killing his fellow man was a normal condition of existence. He became endowed with a conscience. And he has now reached the day when violence toward another human being must become as abhorrent as eating another's flesh."

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."

"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. "

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. "

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

"The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility."

Read Bobby Kennedy's speech after the death of Martin Luther King Jr.