“I have always seen him (Abraham Heschel) as a kind of intellectual father. And whenever I get a little down or depressed, I go get one of his books and I read the prophet Isaiah and what he has to say about Isaiah. Because Isaiah was written at a time of the desolation of Israel, and yet it’s the loftiest vision of dreams for humankind. It’s people’s ability to have faith in the midst of persecution and destruction that black Americans tapped into. And if you notice Martin Luther King’s speeches, he quotes from the prophets more than almost anybody else. And he got a lot of those insights from his study of Rabbi Heschel.”
– Andrew Young, Civil Rights Activist

“(Martin Luther) King was impacted by Heschel’s analysis of the prophets. Heschel made the conviction of the prophet, ‘that God is here in our immediate struggle, and that God’s struggle is a struggle to help those who are voiceless to find voice, those who are blind to find sight, that it’s in that unique dimension that God is most present.’”
– Rev. James Watson, Civil Rights Activist