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I am
happy to join with you today in what will go down in
history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in
the history of our nation.
Five score years ago,
a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand
today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This
momentous decree came as a great beacon light of
hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been
seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came
as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their
captivity.
But one hundred years
later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred
years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly
crippled by the manacles of segregation and the
chains of discrimination. One hundred years later,
the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the
midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One
hundred years later, the Negro still languishes in
the corners of American society and finds himself an
exile in his own land.
So we've come here
today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense,
we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.
When the architects of our Republic wrote the
magnificent words of the Constitution and the
Declaration of Independence, they were signing a
promissory note to which every American was to fall
heir. This note was a promise that all men--yes,
black men as well as white men--would be guaranteed
the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today
that America has defaulted on this promissory note
insofar as her citizens of colour are concerned.
Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, America
has given the Negro people a bad check, a check
which has come back marked "insufficient
funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank
of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that
there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of
opportunity of this nation. So we've come to cash
this check--a check that will give us upon demand
the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to
this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce
urgency of "now." This is no time to
engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the
tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to
make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time
to rise from the dark and desolate valley of
segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.
Now is the time to lift our nation from the
quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of
brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a
reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for
the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.
This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate
discontent will not pass until there is an
invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
Nineteen sixth-three is not an end, but a beginning.
Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off
steam and will now be content will have a rude
awakening if the nation returns to business as
usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquillity
in America until the Negro is granted his
citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will
continue to shake the foundations of our nation
until the bright day of justice emerges.
But that is something
that I must say to my people who stand on the warm
threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In
the process of gaining our rightful place we must
not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to
satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the
cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever
conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity
and discipline. We must not allow our creative
protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again
and again we must rise to the majestic heights of
meeting physical force with soul force. The
marvellous new militancy which has engulfed the
Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of
all white people, for many of our white brothers, as
evidenced by their presence here today, have come to
realize that their destiny is tied up with our
destiny. And they have come to realize that their
freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We
cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must
make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We
cannot turn back.
There are those who
are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When
will you be satisfied?" We can never be
satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the
unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can
never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with
the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the
motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic
mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.
We can never be satisfied as long as our children
are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their
dignity by signs stating "For Whites
Only." We cannot 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. No,
no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be
satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and
righteousness like a mighty stream!
I am not unmindful
that some of you have come here out of great trials
and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from
narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas
where your crest--quest for freedom left you
battered by the storms of persecution and staggered
by the winds of police brutality. You have been the
veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work
with the faith that unearned suffering is
redemptive.
Go back to
Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South
Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana,
go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northern
cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and
will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of
despair.
I say to you today,
my friends, so even though we face the difficulties
of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a
dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that
one day this nation will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: "We hold these
truths to be self-evident; that all men are created
equal."
I have a dream that
one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former salve owners
will be able to sit down together at the table of
brotherhood.
I have a dream that
one day even the state of Mississippi, a state
sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering
with the heat of oppression, will be transformed
into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that
my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the colour
of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that
one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists,
with its governor having his lips dripping with the
words of interposition and nullification, one day
right there in Alabama little black boys and black
girls will be able to join hands with little white
boys and white girls as sisters and brothers....I
have a dream today!
I have a dream that
one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill
and mountain shall be made low, the rough places
will be made plain and the crooked places will be
made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together!
This is our hope.
This is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the
mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith
we will be able to transform the jangling discords
of our nation into a beautiful symphony of
brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work
together, to pray together, to struggle together, to
go to jail together, to stand up for freedom
together, knowing that we will be free one day!
This will be the
day...this will be the day when all of God's
children will be able to sing with new meaning.
"My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of
liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died,
land of the Pilgrims' pride, from every
mountainside, let freedom ring," and if America
is to be a great nation, this must become true.
So let freedom ring!
From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let
freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York,
let freedom ring, from the heightening Alleghenies
of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from
the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from
the curvaceous slopes of California! But not only
that.
Let freedom ring from
Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from
Lookout Mountain in Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from
every hill and mole hill of Mississippi. From every
mountainside, let freedom ring, and when this
happens...when we allow freedom to ring, when we let
it ring from every village and every hamlet, from
every state and every city, we will be able to speed
up that day when all of God's children, black men
and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and
Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in
the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at
last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free
at last!"
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