| Have a Dream

by Martin Luther King Jr.
August 28, 1963

I am happy to join with: you
today in what will go down in his-
tory as the greatest demonstration
for freedom in the history of our na-
tion.

Five score years ago, a great
American, in whose symbolic
shadow we stand today, signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. This
momentous decree came as 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

 

manacles of segregation and the

chains of discrimination. One »
~ to.overlook the urgency of the
ment, This sweltering summer of

  

hundred years later, tt
on a lonely island of pe
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. So we have come here
today to dramatize a shameful con-
dition.

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
promisery 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 un-
alienable rights of life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America
has defaulted on this promisery
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 that the bank of jus-
tice is bankrupt. We refuse to
believe that there are insufficient
funds in the great vaults of oppor-

 

 

Sura Nur (Light)

Allah is the Light

Of the heavens and the earth.
The parable of his Light

Is as if there were a Niche
And within it a Lamp:

The Lamp enclosed in Glass:
The glass as it were

A brilliant star:

Lit from a blessed Tree,

An Olive, neither of the East
Nor of the West,

Whose Oil is well-nigh
Luminous,

Though fire scarce touched it:
Light upon Light!

Allah doth guide

Whom He will

To His Light:

Allah doth set forth Parables
For men: and Allah

Doth know all things.

The Holy Quran

tunity of this nation. So we’ve
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 promises of Democracy.
Now is the time to rise from the
dark and desolate valley of
segregation to the sunlight of racial
justice. Now is the time to lift our

nation from the quicksand of racial

injustice to the solid rock of
brotherhood. Now is the time to
make justice a reality for all God’s
children.

It would be fatal for the nation

the Negro’s, legitimate discontent
will not pass until there.is.an-in-
vigorating autumn of freedom and

 
 

meeting physical force with soul
force. The marvelous new militan-
cy 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 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 tum
back. There are those who ask the
devotees of civil rights, "When will

We cannot be satisfied
as. the Negro’s basic

equality. Nineteen sixty-three is».a

not at an end, but a beginning.

Those who hope that the Negro
needed to blow off steamand 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 na-
tion until the bright day of justice
emerges.

But that 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 dig-
nity and discipline. We must not
allow our creative protest to
degenerate into physical violence.
Again and again we just

rise to the majestic heights of

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we
will not be satisfied until justice
rolls down like waters and
righteousness like a mighty stream.

Iam not unmindful that some of
you have come! shere out of great tri-.

 
  

sh from narrow jail
you have come from

areas where re Your Guess 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 i is
redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back
to Alabama, go back to South
Carolina, go back to Georgia, go
back to Louisiana,

atisfied?" We can never be _ «tf

A i cannot vote .
Sgro in New York believes
thing:for which to. vote. -

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,
so even though we face the difficul-
ties of today and tomorrow, I still

have a dream. It is a dream deeply:

rooted in the American dream. __
Ihave a dream that one day this
nation will rise up.and live out the
2 ve

    
 
   
 
    
 
 
  
  
  
   
    
    
 
   
 

 
   

freedom and ju ee ce
dram-- “9. oo

That my four little thitdren 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; Ihave 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 in-

terposition and nullification, one
day right there 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
poke” valley shall be exalted, every
mountain shall be made
tow and rough places will be made
plane and 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 jan-

 

 
 

gling discords of our nation into a
beautiful symphony of brother-
hood. 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 Americas to be a great
nation--this must become true.

So let freedom ring--from the

--prodigious hilltops of New
_ Hampshire, let freedom ring; from

thesmighty mountains of New
York, let freedom ring--from the

heightening Alleghenies of Pen-
‘nsylvania! —

Let freedom ring from the snow-

- capped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the cur-
vaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom

ting from Stone Mountain of Geor-

gia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout
Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill
and molehill of Mississippi. From
every mountainside, let freedom
ring, and when this happens...

When we allow freedom to ring,
when we let it ring from every vil-
lage 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! thank God almighty,
we are free at last!"

King advocated nonviolence
in his campaigns. He was
awarded the Nobel peace prize in
1964 and assasinated April 4th,
1968.

 

 

PSALM 23

not want.

waters.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall

He makes me to rest in green pas-
tures;he leads me beside still

He restores my soul. He leads me

"Until mankind can extend the circle of his
compassion to include all living things, he will
never, himself, know peace."

Albert Schweitzer

"The day that hunger is eradicated from the
earth,there will be the greatest spiritual ex-
plosion the world has ever known. Humanity
cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the

world on the day of that great revolution."

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world: indeed,
it’s the only thing that ever has."

Margaret Mead

Federico Garcia Lorca

",,.Until one is committed there is hesitancy,
the chance to draw back, always ineffective-

 

 

in the paths of righteousness for
his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil;for thou art with
me; thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me
in the presence of mine enemies;

thou annointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

Surely thy goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of
my life; and I shall dwell in the
house of the Lord for ever.

The Holy Bible

"A human being is a part of the whole called
by us ’Universe,’ a part limited in time and space.

He experiences himself, his thoughts and feel-
ings as something separated from the rest-a kind
of optical delusion of his conciousness.

This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restrict-
ing us to our personal desires and to affection for
a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this
prison by widening our circle of compassion to
embrace all living creatures and the whole nature
in its beauty."

Albert Einstein

 

 

 

ness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and crea-
tion), there is one elemantary truth, the ig-
norance of which kills countless ideas and
splendid plans: that the moment one definitely
commits oneself, then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that
would never otherwise have occurred. A whole
stream of events issues from the decision, rais-
ing in one’s favor all manner of unforseen inci-
dents and meetings and material assistance,
which no man could have dreamt would have
come his way.
I have learned a deep respect for one of
Goethe’s couplets:
Whatever you can do, or dream you
can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic
in it".

W. H. Murray