Race Riots Quotes:

'Rage' is the word that most often attaches itself to the Tea Party movement, and it's true that, from the outside looking in, their public demonstrations appear to be more enraged than any political events in America since the race riots and anti-war protests of the 1960s.

- Jonathan Raban

source: "Sipping with the Tea Party" by Jonathan Raban, www.theguardian.com. October 15, 2010.

topic: War, Party, Race Riots, Outside Looking In, Tea Party Movement

And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

topic: Years, White, America, Birmingham, Unheard

Since its founding, Detroit has been a place of perpetual flames. Three times the city has suffered race riots and three times the city has burned to the ground. The city's flag acknowledges as much. Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus: We hope for better things; it shall rise from the ashes.

- Charlie LeDuff

source: Charlie LeDuff (2013). “Detroit: An American Autopsy”, p.33, Penguin

topic: Race, Flames, Cities, Race Riots

People talk about the 1960s in a nostalgic way, but to me it was terrifying. People were getting assassinated. There was Vietnam. There were race riots. It felt like everything was going to get blown up sky-high. It didn't feel like flower power. It felt like Armageddon.

- Sam Shepard

topic: Flower, Sky, Race, Armageddon, Race Riots

This was a very progressive group of clergy who foresaw the race riots that were going to take place when Dr. King started helping the local civil rights community push for open housing. They were sort of hoping against hope that we could educate kids in a way that could counter some of the racist messages they were imbibing at home. I don't know whether we did any good, but it changed my life in every single way.

- Sara Paretsky

source: Source: www.progressive.org

topic: Kings, Home, Kids, Imbibing, Race Riots

I found myself in the middle of a race riot when I was about 14 years old, and I found someone pointing a gun at me and telling me to run or they'd shoot me.

- Tracy Chapman

topic: Running, Gun, Years, Race Riots, Found Someone

I expect to see trade wars, foreign policy disasters, a few race riots, a decrease in personal liberty, higher taxes, higher inflation and probably, economic collapse. The silver lining is, secession will probably become more feasible.

- Charley Reese

topic: War, Race, Liberty, Secession, Economic Collapse

They say people can think for themselves? Do you honestly believe that the chap who can’t pass primary six knows the consequence of his choice when he answers a question viscerally, on language, culture and religion? But we knew the consequences. We would starve, we would have race riots. We would disintegrate.

- Lee Kuan Yew

topic: Believe, Thinking, Race, Language Culture, Race Riots

This is the most exciting place in the world to live. Oh yeah! There are so many ways to die in New York City! Race riots, drive by shootings, subway crashes, construction cranes collapsing on the sidewalks, manhole covers blowing up and asbestos shooting into the sky.

- Denis Leary

source: "Denis Leary: No Cure for Cancer". m.imdb.com. 1993.

topic: Funny, New York, Humor, Cranes, Asbestos

News footage came on the TV during dinner of bloody bodies coming back from battle in Vietnam, or the race riots in the South, people getting hosed in Selma, Alabama, or the Biafra war, where I got my name. In my household, it was explained and discussed with the children, as a way of educating us from when we first started grade school why racism and war were wrong, what this all really means.

- Jello Biafra

topic: Children, War, School, Race Riots