I "» | | X {Tlje ^llortlanò ffibseruer Martin Luther King Jr. Special Edition Jan. 13, 7999 King Delivers Dream Speech (Editor's note: Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the following speech on the steps o f the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., Au gust 28, 1963.) Five score years ago, a great Amer ican, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proc lamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light o f hope to millions o f Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames o f wither ing injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life o f the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains o f dis crimination. One hundred years later, the Ne gro lives on a lonely island ofpoverty in the midst o f a vast ocean o f mate rial prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the comers o f American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation’scapitaltocashacheck. When the architects o f our republic wrote the magnificent words o f the Consti tution and the declaration o f Inde pendence, they were signing a prom issory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guar anteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit o f happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens o f color are concerned. Instead o f honoring this sacred obligation, America has giv en the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insuf ficient funds.” But we refuse to be lieve that the bank o f justice is bank rupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults o f opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches o f freedom and the securi ty of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind Ameri ca of the fierce urgency o f now. Th is is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling o ff or to take the tranquiliz- ing drug o f gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley o f segrega tion to the sunlit path o f racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all o f G od’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock o f brotherhood. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency o f the moment and to underestimate the determina tion o f the Negro. This sweltering summer o f the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn o f freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-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 nei ther rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizen ship rights. The whirlwinds o f revolt will continue to shake the founda tions o f our nation until the bright day o f justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people wfio stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace o f justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty o f 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 o f 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 o f meeting physical force with soul force. The m arvelous new militancy I Rosa Parks, flanked by her attorney and a deputy, on her way to the jail. Parks refused to move from her up-front seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala. in 1955. no, we are not satisfied, and we will which has engulfed the Negro com not be satisfied until justice rolls munity must not lead us to distrust of down like waters and righteousness all white people, for many o f our like a mighty stream. white brothers, as evidenced by their 1 am not unmindful that some of presence here today, have come to you have come here out of great trials realize that their destiny is tied up and tribulations. Some o f you have with our destiny and their freedom is come fresh from inextricably bound < < narrow cells. Some to our freedom . , . . . , x o f you have come We cannot walk The whirlwinds OT alone revolt will continue to from areas where your quest for free shake foundations dom left you bat tered by the storms p ledge th at we o f our nation until the o f persecution and shall march ahead, (jg y o f j u s t i c e staggered by the We cannot turn w inds o f police back. There are e m e r g e s . those who are ask- -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. brutality. You have been in g th e d e v o te e so f---------------------- the veterans o f cre civil rights, “When ative suffering Continue to work will you be satisfied?” We can never with the faith that unearned suffering be satisfied as long as our bodies, is redemptive. heavy with the fatigue of travel, can Go back to Mississippi, go back to not gain lodging in the motels of the Alabama, go back to Georgia, go highways and the hotels of the cities. back to Louisiana, go back to the We cannot be satisfied as long as the slums and ghettos o f our northern N egro's basic mobility is from a cities, knowing that somehow this smaller ghetto to a larger one. situation can and will be changed. We can never be satisfied as long Let us not wallow in the valley of as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote despair and a Negro in New York be I ieves he I say to you today, my friends, that has nothing for which to vote. No, j 11 in spite o f the difficulties and frustra tions o f the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. 1 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 o f former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down to gether at a table of brotherhood. 1 have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat o f injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. 1 have a dream that my four chil dren will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the ' color of their skin but by the content o f their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently drippmg with the words of interposition and nullifica tion, will be transformed into a situ ation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and broth- ers. 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 o f the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which 1 return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out o f the mountain ofdespair a stone o f hope With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling dis cords o f our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work togeth er, to pray together, to struggle to gether, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of G od's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land o f liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land ofthe pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom . ring." And if America is to be a great nation this must become true So le t, freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops ofNew Hampshire. Let free dom ring from the mighty mountains ofN ew York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies o f Penn sylvania! Let freedom rin g from the snowcapped Rockies o f Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curva ceous peaks o f California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain o f Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain o f Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill o f Mississippi. From every mountainside, let free dom ring. When we let freedom 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 o f God’s chil dren, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catho lics, 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!"