Let us say boldly, that if the total slum violations of law by the white man over the years were calculated and compared with the lawbreaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the white man. – Martin Luther King,Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1968

The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued that self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solution of the problems of the world. – Martin Luther King,Jr., Nobel Prize lecture, 11 December 1968

[E]very human life is a reflection of divinity, and… every act of injustice mars and defaces the image of God in man. – Martin Luther King,Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967

But while so many white Americans are unaware of conditions inside the ghetto, there are very few ghetto dwellers who are unaware of the life outside. The television sets bombard them day by day with the opulence of the larger society. – Martin Luther King,Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967