Julian Bond | Former Chairman of the Board of the NAACP

"As we reflect on the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, let’s remember—as his family reminds us—that he didn’t die so that we could have a day off. He died, in part, because he thought that we ought to have every day on.

A day on which we fought against injustice, as he did in his lifetime. And we ought to remember that Martin Luther King didn’t march from Selma to Montgomery by himself. He didn’t speak to an empty field at the March on Washington. There were thousands marching with him and before him, and thousands more who did the dirty work before the triumphal march.

The successful strategies of the Civil Rights Movement were litigation, organization, mobilization, and coalition—all aimed at creating a national constituency for Civil Rights. Sometimes, it is the simplest of acts—sitting at a lunch counter, going to a new school, applying for a marriage license, casting a vote—that can challenge the way that we think and the way that we act.

We have a long and honorable tradition of justice in this country, social justice, and it still sends forth a message that, when we act together, *we can overcome*."