The+'I+Have+a+Dream'+Speech


 * THE "I HAVE A DREAM" SPEECH....**



"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in histroy as the greatest demostration 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 Nego slaves who had long 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. On 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 hunded years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself as 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 the architects of our republi write the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Decleration of Independence, they were signing a promissory not to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promis that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalinabe rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious toda that America has defaulted on this promissory not 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 jto 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 his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of nw. This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take in 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 quick sands of racial injustic 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. Ninteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginnig. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening it 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 whirlwind of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I ust 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 descipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate in 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 evidence by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricable bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are sking 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 thir dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannt 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 bve 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. Soe 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 stroms 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 Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go bakc 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 difficulties of today and tommorow, 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 sel-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 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 there in Alabama, little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and little 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 plain, and the crooked places ill be make 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 trasform 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 when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, swee land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountain side, 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 snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia!

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 whn this happens, when we allow freedom to 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, Protestands and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the word of the old Negro spiritual, "**Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last**!"" ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

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This speech, in my opinion, was one of the most important speeches in history. It was given by Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28th, 1963. King basically called the white Americans out, saying that it had been a century since the Emancipation Proclamation and Blacks were still treated like dirt, that nothing had really changed. King gave his speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial for that purpose. This speech was broadcasted nationwide and even worldwide. It was reprinted in newspapers and magazines all over the world. Because of this speech, congress passed the Civil Rights Act the next year (1946), which gave African-Americans more equal treatment.