[1]
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.
[2]
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.
[3]
But one hundred 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.
[4]
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 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.”
[5]
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 the security of justice.
[6]
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.
[7]
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. And 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. And 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.
[8]
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.
[9]
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.
[10] We cannot walk alone.
[11] And as we walk, we must make the pledge that
we shall always march ahead.
[12] We cannot turn back.
[13]
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 self-hood 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.”
[14]
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. And some of
you have come from areas where your quest — 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.
[15]
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
[16]
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.
[17]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.”
[18]
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.
[19]
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.
[20]
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.
[21] I have a dream today!
[22]
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 black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys
and white girls as sisters and brothers.
[23] I have a dream today!
[24]
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.”
[25] This is our hope, and this is the faith that I
go back to the South with.
[26]
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.
[27]
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will
be able to sing with new meaning:
[28] My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of
liberty, of thee I sing.
[29] Land where my fathers died, land of the
Pilgrim’s pride,
[30] From every mountainside, let freedom
ring!
[31] And if America is to be a great nation, this
must become true.
[32] And so let freedom ring from
the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
[33] Let freedom ring from the
mighty mountains of New York.
[34] Let freedom ring from the
heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
[35] Let freedom ring from the
snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
[36] Let freedom ring from the
curvaceous slopes of California.
[37] But not only that. Let freedom ring
from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
[38] Let freedom ring from Lookout
Mountain of Tennessee.
[39] Let freedom ring from every
hill and molehill of Mississippi.
[40] From every mountainside, let freedom
ring.
[41] 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:
[42] Free at last! Free at last!
[43] Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
