The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Stand up for the facts! Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" ![](\\" Dan Patrick stated on January 5, 2017 in remarks to reporters supporting legislation related to bathroom access: \"Martin Luther King said our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" half-true/6479cbc723379f0ee49c269b0b9790b7.jpg.\\") ![\\"half- true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") * Civil Rights * History * Texas * Dan Patrick ![\\"Lt.](\\" Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick attributed words to the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a Jan. 5, 2017, press conference on legislation affecting bathroom access (screen grab, Texas Senate video). By W. Gardner Selby January 6, 2017 # Half True: Dan Patrick on Martin Luther King saying lives start to \'end the day we become silent\' Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick opened his full-throated endorsement of Texas legislation targeting transgender access to bathrooms by quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Patrick, joined by the proposal’s author, state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, told reporters at the Texas Capitol on Jan. 5, 2017: \"Martin Luther King said our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter. \"This legislation, the Texas Privacy Act, that Sen. Kolkhorst is filing today, is unquestionably one of the things that matters,\" Patrick said. \"It’s the right thing to do. I know it, Texans know it and Sen. Kolkhorst knows it.\" Debate over the measure--banning transgender people from using the Texas bathroom of their choice--will play out in the 2017 legislative session. We focused on the origin of Patrick’s King quotation. Patrick offers no backup We didn’t hear back from Patrick about when and where the slain civil rights leader made the singled-out statement, which went noted in the Associated Press’s account of Patrick’s remarks and quoted by the Dallas Morning News. For our part, a web search for the quotation and \"King\" suggested by a professor yielded 2,980 results including books of poetry and documentation that President Clinton similarly quoted King in an April 2000 speech and Sen. Joe Lieberman did so in the Senate in June 2003. So, Patrick was in bipartisan company in crediting the words to King. On the other hand, we were unable to confirm that King made that exact declaration. Also, it’s worth noting, King probably didn’t expound on bathrooms except toward widening access to public facilities. A photo caption We started our look into this topic by trying to gauge if King said the words aired by Patrick. Right off, a web search yielded an undated New York Daily News photo of King giving a speech. The photo caption said: \"King was engaged in a battle with Sheriff Jim Clark over voting rights and voter registration in Selma. On March 8, 1965, King spoke from the pulpit on courage: ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’\" Stanford researchers can’t confirm Separately, though, King experts either said he likely didn’t make the quoted remark or if he did, it’s hard to confirm so with ease. \"That would be a research project,\" said Clayborne Carson, the Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial professor of history at Stanford University and director of a research institute in King’s name. By phone, Carson told us that’s because the institute’s resources aren’t yet easily searched for a particular quotation. Put another way, he said by email, it’s \"easier to prove what King said on a particular occasion than to prove that he never said the quote in question on any occasion.\" An institute research assistant, Ellen Ingebritsen, later responded that her search of the project’s internal database and documents culled from the institute\'s King papers didn’t turn up King making the statement. Then again, she said, the institute has yet to catalogue the majority of King’s work from 1965. Otherwise, she said, King letters and telegrams from that year don’t contain the words attributed to King by Patrick. A similar confirmed King statement Story over? Not quite. Other experts helped us find that King made a similar yet less direct statement in the Brown Chapel in Selma, Ala., on Monday, March 8, 1965--the same date noted in the News’s photo caption and also the day after protesters met police violence after attempting to cross a bridge on the way to Montgomery, the state capital. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" ![](\\" Rick Scott stated on August 28, 2024 in a post on X “This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" half-true/6479cbc723379f0ee49c269b0b9790b7.jpg.\\") ![\\"half- true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 29, 2024 King, who would shortly lead a crossing of the bridge before turning around, said in part: \"A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.\" Here’s King’s remark in context as we found it on an East Tennessee State University web page: \"Deep down in our non-violent creed is the conviction there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they\'re worth dying for. And if a man happens to be 36-years-old, as I happen to be, some great truth stands before the door of his life--some great opportunity to stand up for that which is right. \"A man might be afraid his home will get bombed, or he\'s afraid that he will lose his job, or he\'s afraid that he will get shot, or beat down by state troopers, and he may go on and live until he\'s 80. He\'s just as dead at 36 as he would be at 80. The cessation of breathing in his life is merely the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. He died... \"A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. \"So we\'re going to stand up amid horses. We\'re going to stand up right here in Alabama, amid the billy-clubs. We\'re going to stand up right here in Alabama amid police dogs, if they have them. We\'re going to stand up amid tear gas! \"We\'re going to stand up amid anything they can muster up, letting the world know that we are determined to be free!\" To our inquiry, Doug Burgess, chairman of the university’s history department, said by phone that he posted the excerpt some 15 years ago. Burgess also helped us track down a YouTube video in which we saw King making the remarks, which the video attributes to a Nostalgia Company recording, \"The Greatest Speeches of All Time, Volume II.\" Separately, Carson told us his research took note of a similar King statement made Nov. 5, 1967, at his home church in Atlanta. King, exhorting parishioners to fight for what’s right, said a person’s failure to do so would amount to dying before death. \"You died when you refused to stand up for right, you died when you refused to stand up for truth, you died when you refused to stand up for justice,\" Carson quoted King saying. We also heard back from a King biographer, David Garrow, who said by email that his sense is that King didn’t make the statement aired by Patrick. That \"language does *NOT* in any way sound familiar to me as an exact quote,\" Garrow wrote. \"I believe it is INVALID.\" Garrow summed up: \"Your verdict on this ought to be something like \'Unproven, undocumented, & highly doubtful.’\" Texas professors: Quotation out of context Asked to assess Patrick’s quotation, University of Texas historians Don Carleton and Paul Stekler each opined that Patrick presented King’s sentiment out of historical context. Stekler, who helped produce, direct and write a documentary on the civil rights movement in 1967-68, said by email that King \"was in Selma to try and force federal action to ensure voting rights, a campaign that was successful with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the aftermath of the police riot on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He was advocating the expansion of rights for African-Americans in the South where they had been and were largely disenfranchised.\" Patrick, Stekler wrote, employed King’s purported words in support of restricting the rights of transgender people. \"One use of the quote uses it in support of the expansion of rights, the other in restricting rights,\" Stekler said. Our ruling Per Patrick, King said our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter. Patrick didn’t show nor did we confirm that King made this direct statement. Then again, Patrick didn’t specify he was quote-unquote directly quoting King while King in 1965 made a longer proclamation that might later have been paraphrased in the 14 words that Patrick and others including President Clinton ultimately attributed to the civil rights icon. On balance, we rate this claim Half True. **HALF TRUE** – The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Photo caption, \"Martin Luther King Jr.delivers speech, 1965,\" New York Daily News, undated (accessed Jan. 5, 2017) Telephone interview, Don Carleton, executive director, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, Jan. 5, 2017 Email, Paul Stekler, professor of Public Affairs, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, Jan. 5, 2017 Remarks by Martin Luther King, March 8, 1965, East Tennessee State University, undated and unattributed (accessed Jan. 5, 2017) Telephone interview and email, W. Doug Burgess Jr., PhD, chairman, Department of History, East Tennessee State University, Jan. 5, 2017 Telephone interview and emails, Clayborne Carson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial professor of history, Ronnie Lott founding director, The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, Jan. 5-6, 2017 YouTube video, \"Brown Chapel - Selma, AL. - 3/8/1965,\" Martin Luther King Jr., from a recording, \"The Greatest Speeches of All Time, Volume II,\" published Sept. 29, 2014 (accessed Jan. 4, 2017) Emails (excerpted), Dave Garrow, author, \"Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,\"Jan. 5-6, 2017 Emails, Ellen Ingebritsen, research assistant, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, Jan. 6, 2017 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by W. Gardner Selby slide 4 to 6 of 15 ![](\\" ![](\\" M.J. Hegar stated on August 21, 2018 in an interview on Spectrum Cable\'s \"Capital Tonight\": Says U.S. Rep. John Carter \"hasn’t held a town hall in five years.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • August 29, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Beto O\'Rourke stated on July 26, 2018 in an ad in the Houston Defender: Says \"black Americans have 10 times less wealth than white Americans.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • August 23, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Silvestre Reyes stated on May 22, 2012 in a TV ad: Says Beto O’Rourke \"has a criminal record that includes DWI and burglary arrests.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By W. Gardner Selby • August 22, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ken Paxton stated on October 25, 2018 in a TV ad: Says Ken Paxton \"shut down the world’s largest human trafficking marketplace.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • November 1, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on October 22, 2018 in a rally for Republican candidates in Houston: Says Beto O’Rourke \"voted to shield MS-13 gang members from deportation.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • October 25, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Beto O\'Rourke stated on October 16, 2018 in a debate televised from San Antonio: Says \"only one other senator from either party over the last 25 years\" has \"a worse record on bipartisanship\" than Ted Cruz. ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By W. Gardner Selby • October 18, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Alexander Strenger stated on October 1, 2018 in response cited in an interactive voter guide: Says 60 percent of Austin’s \"waterways are found to be contaminated with fecal matter and deemed unsafe to swim.\" ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • October 16, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Beto O\'Rourke stated on September 29, 2018 in an Austin rally: Says that in Texas, \"you can be too gay to adopt\" a foster child \"who needs a loving home.\" ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • October 4, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ted Cruz stated on September 21, 2018 in a debate at Southern Methodist University: Says Beto O’Rourke described police as \"modern-day Jim Crow.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • September 25, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Beto O\'Rourke stated on September 21, 2018 in a debate at Southern Methodist University: Says he \"did not try to leave the scene of the accident\" that led to his arrest for driving while intoxicated. ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • September 25, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Texans Are stated on September 12, 2018 in a TV ad: Says Beto O’Rourke voted \"against body armor for Texas sheriffs patrolling the border.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By W. Gardner Selby • September 13, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ken Paxton stated on August 26, 2018 in an interview on Fox & Friends: Says Texas has \"had over 600,000 crimes committed by illegals since 2011. Over 1,200 homicides.\" ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • September 7, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Greg Abbott stated on August 30, 2018 in a TV ad: Says Texas \"high school graduation rates are at all-time highs.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By W. Gardner Selby • September 7, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ted Cruz stated on September 4, 2018 in a video: Says Beto O’Rourke said he’s grateful that people are burning or desecrating the American flag. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By W. Gardner Selby • September 5, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ted Cruz stated on August 28, 2018 in an online video ad: Says Beto O’Rourke \"voted against\" Hurricane Harvey \"tax relief.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • August 29, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" M.J. Hegar stated on August 21, 2018 in an interview on Spectrum Cable\'s \"Capital Tonight\": Says U.S. Rep. John Carter \"hasn’t held a town hall in five years.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • August 29, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Beto O\'Rourke stated on July 26, 2018 in an ad in the Houston Defender: Says \"black Americans have 10 times less wealth than white Americans.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • August 23, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Silvestre Reyes stated on May 22, 2012 in a TV ad: Says Beto O’Rourke \"has a criminal record that includes DWI and burglary arrests.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By W. Gardner Selby • August 22, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ken Paxton stated on October 25, 2018 in a TV ad: Says Ken Paxton \"shut down the world’s largest human trafficking marketplace.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • November 1, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on October 22, 2018 in a rally for Republican candidates in Houston: Says Beto O’Rourke \"voted to shield MS-13 gang members from deportation.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By W. Gardner Selby • October 25, 2018 ![](\\" ![](\\" Beto O\'Rourke stated on October 16, 2018 in a debate televised from San Antonio: Says \"only one other senator from either party over the last 25 years\" has \"a worse record on bipartisanship\" than Ted Cruz. ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By W. Gardner Selby • October 18, 2018 ### Half True: Dan Patrick on Martin Luther King saying lives start to \'end the day we become silent\' * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 16, 2024 in a Facebook post: “Country Music Television (CMT) has announced a permanent boycott of Taylor Swift.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 18, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 11, 2024 in a Facebook post: “Disney World officially moving to Nashville.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 18, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Bernie Moreno stated on September 9, 2024 in an Instagram post: “Illegal” Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, are “reportedly killing and eating pets.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Seth A. Richardson • September 18, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 17, 2024 in an Instagram post: Karine Jean-Pierre, President Joe Biden’s press secretary, ended a press conference when a reporter asked about Donald Trump’s assassination attempt. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • September 18, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Threads posts stated on September 12, 2024 in a post on Threads: An image shows Taylor Swift responding to Elon Musk\'s X post about giving her a child by saying she\'s happy to take his daughter Vivian and ‘give her all the love and respect she deserves.’ ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Andy Nguyen • September 18, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Tony Perkins stated on September 11, 2024 in a Facebook post: “In 12 states, children born alive after a failed abortion have no legal protection, and in three more states children born alive after an abortion had legal rights that governors — like Tim Walz — repealed.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sara Swann • September 18, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Threads posts stated on September 16, 2024 in Threads post: Images show Sean Combs’ booking photos after Sept. 16 arrest. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 18, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 28, 2024 in an ad: “Kamala Harris has promised amnesty for the 10 million illegals she allowed in as border czar, making them eligible for Social Security. Studies warn this will lead to cuts in your Social Security benefits.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Maria Ramirez Uribe • September 18, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on September 13, 2024 in a rally in Las Vegas: Vice President Kamala Harris is “talking about bringing back the draft.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 18, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 15, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook: \"ABC elimina a los moderadores del debate David Muir y Linsey Davis\". ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Sofia Ahmed • September 18, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. Become a member! In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts. Sign me up #### Offices District of Columbia 1800 I Street NW Washington, DC 20006 Florida 801 3rd St. S St. Petersburg, FL 33701 727-821-9494 #### People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis #### State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin #### About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters #### RSS Feeds * Recent Articles and Fact-checks * Recent Fact-checks Suggest a Fact-check #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Copyright ©All Rights Reserved Poynter Institute 2020, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization ![\\"\\"](\\" ✕ * * *
Martin Luther King said our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter