Martin Luther King Junior
I have a dream...
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 is still languished in the corners of American
society and finds himself an exile in his own land.
And 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 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."
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. And 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 quicksands 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 sixty-three is not an 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. And 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 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.
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 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 self-hood and robbed of their
dignity by a sign 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. And some of
you have come from areas where your quest -- 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.
And 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 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 that 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, 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, and 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, and 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.
And 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 Pilgrim's
pride,
From every mountainside, 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 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 this happens, when we allow 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 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:
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!