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 manacle 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 languish in the
corners of American society and finds himself an 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 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 inalienable 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. 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 make real the promise's 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. 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 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 selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs
stating "for white 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
your trials and tribulations. 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
persecutions 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 modern 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, though 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... 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
they 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 down 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,every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough
places will be made plains 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 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.
This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's
children 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. 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 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 Tenneessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi,
from every mountainside.
Let freedom ring,
And when this happens,and when we allow freedom ring, when we
let it ring from every tenement 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."
