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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
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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!"