I Have a Dream: Repression Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph.Sentence)

Quote #4

We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating for whites only. (9.7)

Here, MLK is referencing segregated restaurants and other public venues. These forms of discrimination were examples of average people participating in the repression of African Americans. That's right: you too can make a negative difference.

Quote #5

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. (10.1-3)

MLK offers encouragement to people who have been harassed by police, arrested, mugged…sadly, the list goes on. The resistors of the Civil Rights Movement were not going to budge easily. Some of the basic infrastructure of society—schools, jails, police forces, public transportation, voting booths—were deployed to punish protesters. Repression means being held down by the powers that be—also known as The Man.