Bill Clinton

“ As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars...I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent. ”

“ Today, with an entire generation of voting Americans who did not witness firsthand the great civil rights victories of the 1960s, it is more important than ever to remind the Nation about Dr. King and his inestimable gifts to this country, so that all of us continue to grow in our commitment to justice and equality. ”

“ King taught that the goals of civil rights are not merely the goals of any specific group-they are the goals of our Nation. To give people opportunity, to treat them with fairness, and to distinguish them only by their potential-we will continue to work toward these goals as long as people in this Nation are in need of housing, medical care, and subsistence. We will continue to work as long as neighborhoods are ravaged by drugs and violence. We will continue to work as long as any person, because of circumstance of birth, is granted anything less than the full measure of his or her dignity. ”