“You can’t legislate integration, but you can legislate de-segregation. Morality can’t be legislated, but laws can regulate behavior. Laws can’t make you love me, but they can keep you from lynching me. The law can change our habits, and then our hearts will change.”
Excerpt from a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to over 4,000 people at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University) on May 26, 1964.
Source: Article by Seth Mallios and Breana Campbell in the Spring 2015 issue of Journal of San Diego History, “On the Cusp of An American Civil Rights Revolution: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s Final Visit and Address to San Diego in 1964.”
Get Updates Automatically-Become A Follower of the San Diego History Seeker
You can get regular updates of San Diego History Seeker automatically in your email by clicking on the “Follow” button in the lower right corner of the blog page. You’ll then get an email asking you to confirm. Once you confirm you’ll be an active follower.
San Diego History Seeker 
Great find! Thanks for the post.
________________________________
Thank you for the comment. Dr. King said some profound things, many of which continue to offer lessons for us today.
I love the quotation from King. Thank you!
Diane Johnson Borrego Springs
>
Thank you for the comment. I was fortunate enough to hear Dr. King in person when he came to speak at my college in 1967, just six months before his death. He used a similar phrase then to the one I found in the San Diego speech, and I had to use it. One of many things he said which continue to hold lessons for us today.