the Moral leader of our Nation [I]

Have the pleasure to present to you, Dr.. Martin Luther King 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 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

100 years later

the negro lives on a lonely island of Poverty

in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity

100 years later

the negro is still languished in the corners of American Society and

finds himself in 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

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

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'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 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

1963 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

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 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 body is 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

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 great trials and tribulation

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 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 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 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"

That one day on the red hills of Georgia

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

00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:01,720 I have a dream that one day

down

And 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.

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

00:14:35,110 --> 00:14:38,579 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 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 a peace 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 Pilgrims pride from

every mountainside

Let freedom ring", and if America is to be a great nation this

Must become true and 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 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 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"