As our nation pauses today to honor the life, work and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we share some of King’s most memorial quotes that reference Mississippi.

“The Future of the United States of America may well be determined here, in Mississippi, for it is here that Democracy faces its most serious challenge.”

“… I do not come to Mississippi without reminding us of the three young members of this movement who have been missing and may have been murdered here in Mississippi.”

“Our nation sent out Peace Corps volunteers throughout the underdeveloped nations of the world and none of them experienced the kind of brutality that these voter registration workers have suffered here in Mississippi.”

“I do not think violence could solve the problem in New York, nor can it solve the problem in Mississippi. It creates many more social problems than it solves. The use of violence in our struggle is both impractical and immoral.”

“We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.”

“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

“Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.”