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MLK I am happy join with you today in what will go down in history as greatest demonstration for freedom in history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of hope to millions of slaves, who had been seared in flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak end long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the colored America still not . One hundred years later, life of colored American still sadly crippled by manacle of segregation and chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, colored American lives a lonely island of poverty in midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, colored American still languishing in corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we have come to our Nation’s Capital to cash a check. When architects of our great republic wrote magnificent of Constitution and Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note which every American was fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed inalienable rights of life liberty and pursuit of happiness. It obvious today that America has defaulted this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given its colored people a bad check, a check that has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse believe that bank of justice bankrupt. We refuse believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come his hallowed spot remind America of fierce urgency of Now. This is not time engage in luxury of cooling off or take tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is time make real promise of democracy. Now time rise from dark and desolate valley of segregation sunlit path of racial justice. Now it time lift our nation from quicksand of racial injustice solid rock of brotherhood. Now time make justice a reality of God’s . I would be fatal for nation overlook urgency of moment and underestimate determination of ’s colored citizens. This sweltering summer of colored people’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty- not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that colored Americans needed blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if nation returns business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the colored citizen granted his citizenship rights. whirlwinds of revolt will continue shake foundations of our nation until bright day of justice emerges. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in motels of highways and hotels of cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as colored person’s basic mobility from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “for white .” We cannot be satisfied as long as a colored person in Mississippi cannot vote and a colored person in New York believes he has nothing for which 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 from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecutions and staggered by winds of police brutality. You have been veterans of creative suffering. Continue work with faith that unearned suffering redemptive. Go back Mississippi, go back Alabama, go back South Carolina go back Georgia, go back Louisiana, go back slums and ghettos of our modern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in valley of despair. I say you, my friends, we have difficulties of today and tomorrow. I still have a dream. a dream deeply rooted in American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise and live out true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths be self-evident that men are created equal. I have a dream that one day out in red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and sons of former slaveowners will be able 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 oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by 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 of interposition and nullification; that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able 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 engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every 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 will 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 climb for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when of God’s will be able sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!” And if America is be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from curvaceous slopes of California. But not that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi and every mountainside. When we let freedom ring, when we let ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able speed that day when of God’s , black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able join hands and sing in of old spiritual, “ at last, at last. Thank God Almighty, we are at last.” |
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Still resonates today
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I was a young girl but his words were felt but not quite understood until I moved here to FL.....beautiful words.
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1/18/2021 1:10 pm |
I remember the speech in 1963 it followed the year in which JFK was killed in Dallas and on the eve of vietnam. Not much has changed in Oxford, Mississippi, Dallas, Texas and the Mekong river is still flowing. I have raised seven white children with clear eyes and full hearts and I've taught them not to take bad checks and to keep their word.
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Nice to read this again. "One Big Sky Covers Us All Equally"
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I remember getting into trouble back in 1963 for not saying the Pledge of Allegiance one morning in the elementary school I was at before this speech. What is interesting about Dr. King's speech is that the last parts of it about the dream were not in the original written speech. 
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1/18/2021 4:26 pm |
Thank you for posting this. We all need to be reminded of his words again and again. Sometimes, when I daydream, I try to imagine, what our world would be like, had he not been taken from us. Again ...thank you Strive for calm, but through balance, not through standing still...Friedrich Schiller IMC1958
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Thank you for post. His speech is very moving. I have a dream that citizens will start acting right...just say... Howling at the moon and mal ad osteo.
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Those are the most welcome words today...
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rayne This MUST surely be one of the greatest speeches of all time! I remember the shock and sadness of his assassination! The World would be such a better place if there were more like him!! A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. George Bernard Shaw Jenny
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It was very nice to read your post. It made me thank about the things that I have seen in my life. I am a 58 about to be 59 year old black man. I was in the ARMY for 27 years. I was born in Mississippi . I live in Mississippi now. It is a better place now then it was when I was just a boy. I have to give thanks to MLK and all of the other man and woman that helped him make it a better place. Thank you for doing this post today.
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His voice still rings today. We could hear it in Georgia on January 5. God willing, we will hear it in the halls of Congress, in the halls of Justice and in the legislatures all over this land with new protections for voting rights.
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Thank you so much for sharing this. It's something that should never be forgotten. "Men need to hunt. She obviously understands this. She’s offering herself as prey. Not easy prey. But willing.”
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