President Lyndon Johnson with Civil Rights Leaders
"We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood." - Lyndon B. Johnson
March on Washington
"Let us understand that we cannot defend freedom in Berlin so long as we deny freedom in Birmingham." - Walter Reuther, President of United Auto Workers
"I Have a Dream..."
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
Protesters
"The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the world of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something." - John Lewis
The Washington Monument
"Contrary to the mythology, the early moments of the March - getting there - was no picnic. People were afraid. We didn't know what we would meet. There was no precedent. Sitting across from me was a black preacher with a white collar. He was an AME preacher. We talked. Every now and then, people on the bus sang 'Oh Freedom' and 'We Shall Overcome,' but for the most part there wasn't a whole bunch of singing. We were secretly praying that nothing violent happened." - John Marshall Kilimanjaro
Just One Face in the Crowd
"It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it." - Maya Angelou
Happy people are the ones who can endure the tough times still with a smile on their faces. They are more resilient and perhaps hard-wired to look on the positive side of things. It simply says happiness is a choice.
Read next feature >
