The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s messages of love, inclusion, hope, and peace breathed energy into the global equality movement that has impacted the lives of so many people over the years.
On this MLK Jr. Day, several members of our neurodiverse family visited sites in Alexandria, VA, outside of Washington DC, that symbolize the historic fight for equality and the need for respect for the dignity of all human beings.
We also reflected on how important the words of Martin Luther King Jr. have been and continue to be for neurodiverse individuals and their families.
The struggle for neurodiverse individuals to be appreciated for their strengths and fully supported so that they can thrive in their own distinctive ways is not nearly finished.
The unemployment rate for autistic persons remains extremely high and really hasn’t changed much for years. Autistic persons also face disproportionately high rates of chronic anxiety, depression, and suicide. And these sad realities show only a small section of an unvirtuous cycle that impacts the lives of neurodiverse children and adults in devastating and unjust ways.
As we dream about a tomorrow, where neurodiverse individuals are lifted up across society so they can achieve their potential, here are 10 MLK Jr. quotes to help guide us along the path toward that future.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]” April 16, 1963
“We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,” he preached in his booming voice, “tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Christmas Sermon, Christmas Eve 1967
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education, and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.” Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964
Equality means dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week. “All Labor Has Dignity” speech, Bishop Charles Mason Temple of the Church of God in Christ in Memphis, Tennessee, March 18, 1968
I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness…” AFL-CIO Convention, December 1961
“Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.” “I Have a Dream” speech, Washington, D.C., Aug. 28, 1963
“A right delayed is a right denied.” Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]” April 16, 1963
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” “I Have a Dream” speech, Washington, D.C., Aug. 28, 1963
“Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.” New York City, April 4, 1967.
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle.” The Death of Evil upon the Seashore” speech, New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, May 17, 1956