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.
Fivescore 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 is still languished in the corners of American society
and finds himself in 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 our
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a
promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was
the 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 in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of
honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a
bad check ; a check which has come back marked "insufficient
funds." We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in
the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
And so we've 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 quicksands
of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood; now is the time to
make justice a reality for all God's children. It would be fatal for the
nation to overlook the urgency of the movement. This sweltering summer
of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an
invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
Nineteen sixty-three is not and end, but a beginning. And 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 tranquility 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 there 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 marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro
community must not lead us to 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.
This offense we share mounted to storm the battlements of injustice must
be carried forth by a biracial army. We cannot walk alone.
And 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
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, 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
excessive trials and tribulation. Some of you have come fresh from
narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your 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 Louisiana;
go back to the slums and ghettos of the northern cities, knowing that
somehow this situation can, and will be changed. Let us not wallow in
the valley of despair.
So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the
difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream
deeply rooted in the American 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, sons of
former slaves and sons of former slave-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 my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character. 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 shall be made
plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight and the glory of
the Lord will 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 hear 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 go to jail together, knowing that we will be free one 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 pilgrim's pride;
from every mountain side, let freedom ring"-and if America is to be
a great nation, this must become true.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that.
Let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi,
from every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every
village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed
up that day when all of God's children - black men and white men, Jews
and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants - will be able to join hands and
to 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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