I Have a
Dream
by
Martin Luther
King
at the March on
for Jobs and Freedom
(
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.
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 100 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
insofar as her citizens of color
are concerned. Instead of honoring this
sacred obligation,
check that 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 security of justice.
We have also come
to this hallowed spot to remind
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. Those
who hoped 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
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
whites only." We cannot be satisfied as
long as a Negro in
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.
Some of you have
come from areas where your quest for freedom left you
battered by 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
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 - 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
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
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
with its governor having his lips dripping with
the words of interposition
and nullification - one day right there in
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. 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 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
let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops
of
freedom ring from the mighty mountains of
from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped
Rockies of Colorado. Let
freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of
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
every mountainside.
Let freedom ring. And when this happens,
and 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: "Free at
last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty,
we are free at last!"