People come up to me in airports, they walk into the office, and they say, 'I'm going to cry; I'm going to pass out.' And I say, 'Please don't pass out; I'm not a doctor.'
From John Lewis
We need someone who is going to stand up, speak up, and speak out for the people who need help, for the people who have been discriminated against.
I grew up very poor in rural Alabama.
When I was 15 years old in 1955, I heard of Rosa Parks. I heard the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. on our radio.
The action of Rosa Parks, the words and leadership of Dr. King inspired me. I was deeply inspired. I wanted to do something.
You have to be optimistic in order to continue to move forward.
In 1965, the attempted march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7 was planned to dramatize to the state of Alabama and to the nation that people of color wanted to register to vote.
A few days after Bloody Sunday, there was demonstration in more than 80 American cities. People were demanding that the government act.
I studied the philosophy and the discipline of non-violence in Nashville as a student. And I staged a sitting-in in the fall of 1959 and got arrested the first time in February 1960.
I was honored to have an opportunity to speak on August 28th, 1963.
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