King was a student of Mahatma Gandhi's extraordinary successful non-violent method of civil protest, and adopted them as staunch theme of the American civil rights movement. |
"I Have A Dream" by Martin Luther
King, Jr, Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968
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So we have 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 rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to
the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all
of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial
injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to
overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro.
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. 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 their freedom is inextricably bound to our
freedom.
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we
must make the pledge that we shall 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 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 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
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 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, that in spite of the
difficulties and frustrations of the moment, 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 slaveowners will be able
to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state
of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will
be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four 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 the state of
Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and
nullification, will be transformed into a situation 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 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 with
which I return to the South. 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 when all of God's
children will be able to sing with a 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. 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 peaks 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 every molehill of Mississippi. From every
mountainside, let freedom 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 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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