37 Quotes About Segregation

Disabling segregation is more than a generation long endeavor. Dealing with getting rid of the things that separate us will ensure we live in harmony in the future. These quotes about segregation will bring you the encouragement you need.

“A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up the state’s segregation laws was democratically elected?”

“America preaches integration and practices segregation.”

“An awful lot of people come to college with this strange idea that there’s no longer segregation in America’s schools, that our schools are basically equal; neither of these things is true.”

“Chicago has very few public spaces where people are encouraged to get together. It’s partly to prevent riots, and also to segregate a city with a history of racial segregation.”

“I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

“I feel that segregation is totally unchristian, and that it is against everything the Christian religion stands for.”

“I grew up in the South. I grew up in the days of legalized segregation. And, so, whether you called it legal racial segregation or you called it apartheid, it was the same injustice.”

“I think in this phase, after the Negro emerges in and from the desegregated society, then a great deal of time must be spent in improving standards which lag behind to a large extent because of segregation,discrimination, and the legacy of slavery.”

“I think people from Northern Ireland have some kind of unspoken general feeling of what it is to be around segregation. You have an awareness of it because you know how much grief it’s caused.”

“In America, there is no racial segregation. I’m not sure I’m quite familiar with this phrase.”

“In its heart, America knew that racial segregation was wrong. In its heart, America knows that human life begins before birth.”

“I’ve always tried to be what I call militantly nonviolent. I don’t believe that anyone could seriously accuse me of not being totally committed to the breakdown of segregation.”

“Many have fought for and even lost their lives to end segregation, to win the right to vote. It disappoints me to now have to cajole people to register and to vote.”

“My parents told me in the very beginning as a young child when I raised the question about segregation and racial discrimination, they told me not to get in the way, not to get in trouble, not to make any noise.”

“My uncertainty disappeared. Segregation is evil, and I cannot, as a minister, condone evil.”

“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.”

“Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.”

“People are really beginning to see the mechanisms of imperialism. When colonialism existed people could see colonialism. When racial segregation existed in its apartheid form, people could see the”whites only” signs.”

“People have said over the years that the reason I did not give up my seat was because I was tired. I did not think of being physically tired. My feet were not hurting.”

“Racial segregation has come back to public education with a vengeance.”

“Racial segregation must be seen for what it is, and that is an evil system, a new form of slavery covered up with certain niceties of complexity.”

“Segregation is that which is forced upon an inferior by a superior. Separation is done voluntarily by two equals.”

“Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.”

“Segregation never brought anyone anything except trouble.”

“Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.”

“Segregation, as even the segregationists know in their hearts, is morally wrong and sinful.”

“The legal battle against segregation is won, but the community battle goes on.”

“The new racism: Racism without ‘racists.’ Today, racial segregation and division often result from habits, policies, and institutions that are not explicitly designed to discriminate.”

“The tragedy of the civil rights movement is that just as it achieved the beginning of the end of racial segregation, white educated elites became swept up in the glamour of the sexual revolution.”

“There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial segregation.”

“There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up…. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber….”

“There’s five factors or characteristics of places where kids from poor backgrounds don’t do very well. And those are places that have more economic and racial segregation, places with more income inequality.”

“To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right.”

“Today we know with certainty that segregation is dead. The only question remaining is how costly will be the funeral.”

“Unfortunately, most of the major denominations still practice segregation in local churches, hospitals, schools, and other church institutions.”

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

“What used to be racial segregation now mirrors itself in class segregation, this great sorting (has) taken place. It creates its own politics.”

Desegregation can make an impact in different industries and environments.