Joseph Lowery Quotations

When we got to Washington that day and discovered people coming in trucks and buses and on planes, in cars, even some came on bicycles and skates -- we were overwhelmed by that response,

would do a lot for his soul and his salvation.

make sure there's no abuse of citizens who want to exercise their right to vote.

She also gave impetus to the move to start the holiday. They could say no to John Conyers, but it wasn't the same as saying no to King's widow. She was a powerful force in getting that legislation through. She provided the opportunity for politicians to favor it without seeming to favor the agitators.

He's certainly been exposed to the civil rights community in unparalleled fashion, ... The name Martin Luther King still has some magic.

He missed an opportunity to name somebody to the courts with the spirit of Rosa Parks, with diversity and minority rights.

Here's a man who may have a major-league arm, but he's got a bush-league attitude.

I think (they waited) because they still had others to interview ... and at the time Mr. King was still weighing the possibility himself, ... His experience has given him more training than anyone else.

I woke up early this morning with Coretta and Rosa on my heart. And I grabbed a piece of paper and I wrote what a great family reunion is going on ... now they're together, Martin and Coretta, after nearly 40 years apart. What a family reunion. It warmed my heart.

I was here when Rosa Parks started and I just wanted to be here when she departed,

The queen mother of the movement has passed from earth to glory,

We knew then that history was being made.

The president of these United States engaged in ceremony in the rotunda, but he stopped short of sacrament when he missed an opportunity to name somebody to the courts with the spirit of Rosa Parks, with diversity and minority rights,

What was not on the national radar screen has exploded onto television screens, ... We know now that the faces of poverty are black and brown, painful and anguished. Let this nation rise up to eliminate poverty and the faces of poverty vanish from the American scene.

the right person at the right time in history.

Rosa Parks was known as the queen mother of the movement. She sat down so that her people could stand up,

The Mothers in Iraq Call Us the Terrorists

Americans have decided the war's over, and it's time to bring the troops home.

That's poll tax and both the Voting Rights Act and court rulings have said there can be no cost imposed for the right to vote.

I don't think he had the intelligence to plan, orchestrate and execute any such action, ... He may or may not know exactly who used him, but I think he knows more than he has revealed.

I think the Montgomery bus boycott initiated an era of self-determination.

It's ironic that the Bible belt is the killing belt - Texas, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, and so forth, Georgia. Chief executioners.

Rosa Parks was an unlikely person, but she became an instrument of the people's will in that community who were tired. They said she was tired from working and perhaps she was - but she herself said later that she was spiritually tired and weary of being humiliated by being asked to move back so that a white person could occupy her seat.

Public policy today is favoring the rich, not the poor. It's not addressing the needs of the poor.

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.

I am in the valley of prayer on the issue of gay marriage, and I will err on the side of inclusiveness and not exclusion. I'm going to follow Jesus and say, Whosoever will, let them come. And I'm going to extend rights to all of God's children and if I am wrong, God will have to judge me.

It's interesting to me that killing damages the image of God when it's done by a person, but it doesn't damage it when it's done by the state.

We've got nearly 50 million people in America with no health insurance. That's a weapon of mass destruction.

Everything has changed and nothing has changed.

I'm neither Democrat nor Republican. I'm Methodist. I have grievances with both parties.

We know there are no weapons of mass destruction. But there are weapons of misdirection. Millions without health insurance, poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor.

You gotsta love all God's children!

I don't absolve the Democrats of their lack of commitment to deal with poverty. But nowadays we're witnessing the widening of the gap. There's something wrong when a handful of people have more than they'll ever need while millions of people have less than they always need.

If you don't know where you come from, then you want know when you'er being taken back.

We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.

If you don't know where you come from, it's difficult to determine where you are.- It's even more difficult to plan where you are going.

I'd like a hamburger and a coke, please. / Sir, we don't serve negroes here. / Ma'am, I don't eat negroes. I'd like a hamburger and a coke.