I HAVE A DREAM
Martin Luther King
...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 the
joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity .
...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 the vast ocean of the
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've come here today to
dramatize a shameful condition .
...I am not unmindful that some you have come here out of great
trials and tribulations . Some of you have come fresh from the
narrow jail cells . Some of you have come from areas where your
quest for freedom left you battered by storms 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 , 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 the red hills of Georgia the sons
of former slaves and the sons of former slaves-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 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 governor
having his lips dripping with its 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 .
...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 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
mountain of despair a stone of hope . With the 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 , 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 new meaning .
...My country , 'tis of thee , sweet land of liberty , Of thee I
sing : Land where my father has died , Land of the pilgrim's
pride , From every mountainside 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 Rocks 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 .
...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
old Negro spiritual , "Free at last ! Free at last ! Thank
God almighty , we are free at last !"