By Maya Dusenbery • @mayadusenbery • 11 years ago

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Open Thread

MLK in handcuffs

Today, as we honor King’s incredible life and legacy, it’s a huge cliche to say that his work isn’t done. But reading these 17 less well-known quotes from King and re-watching Jay’s video of 10 more, I was struck again not only by how many of the battles we’ve yet to win but also by how much his words still resonate today.

This is my personal favorite:

“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

We will be taking today off for the holiday and will resume regular posting tomorrow. In the meantime, leave your quotes, reflections, or links in the comments.

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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