‘(1 HAVE A DREAM …”LVTFIERKING,
(Copyright 1963, M.~RTIN JR.)
Speeoh by the Rev. MAXTIN LUTHEE KING At the “Marah ~n Wa&hi~xgton”
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down
in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in
the histmy of olw nation.
Five smre yeag ago a great American in whw sp-
Imlic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation
Proshation. This momen~tous deoree is a great W n
light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been
seared in the flames of withering injustice. It cmm ais a
joyous d:tybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But 100 years later the Negro still is nok free. One hun-
dred yearn later the life of t,he Xegro is still badly
crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of
diwrimination. One hundred gears later the Negro lives
on a lonely island of povedp in the mjidst d a vast meam
of matr.ria1 prosperity. Ow hundred years later the
Negao is still lanlgnisl~cd ill the cornem of American
=ie$ and finds hinleclf in exile in his m lad. So
wu’vc come ho1.c. today to (1mma.tize a shamdul ccmditicm.
In a sense w~tl’wGome to our nation’s capital to cash
a c+heck. When the aJrrahiteet.s o~f our Republic wrote the
mzpifiemt WOI-(1sof the Constitution and the hlaration
d Lmdepcintlc.nce, thcp were signing a promissory note to
which ewry hlerioan was to fall heir. This note was a
promise that. dl IWII-yes, black nwn as well as white
me-n-would he g~al.a~ltwdthe unalienable rights of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today
tha$ America has defaulted on this promissory note inso-
fkr as hnr citizens of cololr arc c.oncerned. Ins’tead of ,-
honoring this sacred obligation, ~me&a has given the
Nepo people a bad deck, a check whioh has come back
marked “inisrdfioient funds.
”
But we refuse to believe that tihe bank of justice is
tmikrupt. We ~.ef,fuseto belierc? that there are insufficient
Suncis in the gma,t vaults of opportunity of this nation.
So we’ve come to cash this check, ti check that will give
11s upon demand the ridlcs of f~eedom and the security of
justice.
We have dw conic to this hallowed spot to remind
America of the fierce urgcacp of now. This is no time to
cl~g,agcin the 11ixui~ of cooling off or to ta.ke the t-ran-
quilizing di-ng of gradualism. Now is the time to make
leal the prmlisos of democracy. Now is the time to rise
from the dark and rlcsolatt. valley of segregation to the
millit path of racial j~wticc~.Now is the time to lift our
ion from the qaicksands of racial injustice to the solid
rock of bbr.fitfherhowl.
Now is the time t.o nlalrc justice a 1-mlity for all a€
God’s child~en. It wo~.ltlbe fatd for the nation to over-
look the urgency of the momen,t. This swelte&.g summer
of the Xegro’s legitimate discontent. will nat pass until
there is an invigol-atiag autumn of freedm and equality
-1963 is not an end but rz beginning. who hope
that the Xegro needed to blow off sim.m and will now be
c*cmtenlwill have a ndc a wakening if the miioln retumw
to business as wud.
There will be neither rest nor tranquility In America,
until the Negro is granted his fiitizenship rights. The
whirlwinds of revolt will con:t.inue to shake the fouda-
tiom of our nation until the bright dqs of justice merge.
(Copyright 1963. MARTINLCTI-XFR
KIW., JR.)
Anii that is something that I must say to my people who
at& an the worn threshold whioh leads the palm
of justice. In the prmess d gaining our rightful plw
we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not
seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by dl-i;nking from
the cup of bithrness anld hahd.
We must forever conduct our struggle cm t~he high plane
of dignity and diwipline. We must not allow oar erea-
tive proltests to degenerate into physicd videme. Again
and again we must. rise to t
able to hew out d the mount& of despair a stane of
I~o~rn.Vith this faith we will be able to transform the
jsl~gling discords of our nation into a b~utif~l
symphonycd’ brotherhwd. MTith this faith we will be able ta work
together, to pray to get he^, to struggle together, to go to
jail together, to stand ap for freedom @ether, knowing
that we will he frre one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s ahildren will be
able to sing with new meaning. “My country, ’tis of thee,
swot lami of liberty, of the I sing. Land where my
?’athers did, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every
n~ountain side, let freedom ring.” And if herim is to
he rr great nation, this mudt become true. So let freedom
sing from the pr~igious hilltops d New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New
(Copyright 1963, MARTISIXI’HERKING,JR.)
Park. kt,freedom ring from the heightertiing Allegknies
of Pennsylvania. kt freedom ring frm the mowcapped
Rmkias o& Colorado. Let freedom ring from the eurva-
c+mus slow of California.
But nat hnly that. Let freedom rhg from Stone Msun-
tain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Looko;ut Moun-
t-& of Tmcj.ssee. kt freedom ring from every hill and
molehill of hGssiwippi, from every mounhin side. Let
freedom ring . . .
When we allow freedom to ring-when we let it ring
from every city and every ha.mlet, from every s~tate and
every aity, we will be able to speed up that day when dl
CUF God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and
Gentiles, Proteslhts and Catholim, will be able to join
hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,
“Fm at last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, We axe
free at last.”
(Copyright 1963, MARTINLUTHER JR.)
KING,
