“Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten.”

—  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? (1967), p. 109
1960s
Context: Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten. A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present. America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness — justice.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten." by Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Martin Luther King, Jr.658
American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… 1929–1968

Related quotes

Richard Nixon photo

“No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic.”

Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America

No More Vietnams (1987).
1980s

“Many Americans share the feeling that our society has forgotten how to mind its own business.”

Michael Nava (1954) American writer

Source: Non-fiction, Created equal: Why gay rights matter to America (1994), p.141

Adlai Stevenson photo

“A wise man does not try to hurry history. Many wars have been avoided by patience and many have been precipitated by reckless haste.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

Speeches of Adlai Stevenson (1952), p. 39

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Just because I have forgotten so many old enemies does not mean they have forgotten me.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 9 (p. 196)

Johnny Depp photo

“France and the whole of Europe have a great culture and an amazing history. Most important thing, though, is that people there know how to live! In America they've forgotten all about it. I'm afraid that the American culture is a disaster.”

Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician

Lewis H. Lapham photo

“Never in the history of the world have so many people been so rich; never in the history off the world have so many of those same people felt themselves so poor.”

Lewis H. Lapham (1935) American journalist

Preamble, p. 8
Money And Class In America (1989)

Ma Ying-jeou photo

“The mistakes of history might be gradually forgotten, but historical truth cannot be forgotten, since forgetting history could lead to the recurrence of the same mistakes.”

Ma Ying-jeou (1950) Taiwanese politician, president of the Republic of China

Ma Ying-jeou (2015) cited in: &quot; President presents ROC flag to son of war heroine http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aedu/201507030021.aspx&quot; in Focus Taiwan, 3 July 2015. <br class="br">Statement made in launching the two exhibitions on Chinese people&#x27;s lives during Second Sino-Japanese War, 3 July 2015. <br class="br">Political issues

Nilaja Sun photo

“As an American, I always want to create work that reminds the world that people of colour have been great contributors to American history, culture, and tradition and that our stories exist and matter.”

Nilaja Sun

On her aim in “Interview with Nilaja Sun” https://www.voicemag.uk/interview/2818/interview-with-nilaja-sun (2017 Aug 6)

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo

“Be wary of passing the judgment: obscure. To find something obscure poses no difficulty: elephants and poodles find many things obscure.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

E 36
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)

Norman Mailer photo

“Americans have been leading a double life, and our history has moved on two rivers, one visible, the other underground;”

Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film maker, actor and political candidate

Superman Comes to the Supermarket (1960)
Context: Americans have been leading a double life, and our history has moved on two rivers, one visible, the other underground; there has been the history of politics which is concrete, factual, practical and unbelievably dull if not for the consequences of the actions of some of these men; and there is a subterranean river of untapped, ferocious, lonely and romantic desires, that concentration of ecstasy and violence which is the dream life of the nation.

Related topics