Again and Again Rise to the Majestic Heights of Meeting Physical Force With Soul Force

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- Martin Luther King Junior -
"I have a dream" (transcription du discours du 28 août 1963)

Martin Luther King at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (Baronial 28, 1963)

"I Accept a Dream"

I am happy to bring together with you today in what will become 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 Annunciation. This momentous
decree came every bit a great buoy lite of promise to millions of Negro slaves
who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. Information technology came as a
joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro however is non costless. I hundred years
subsequently, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of
segregation and the chains of bigotry. One hundred years later, the
Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast bounding main of
material prosperity. 1 hundred years later, the Negro is yet languished
in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own
land. And then we've come here today to dramatize a shameful status.

In a sense we've come to our nation'due south upper-case letter to cash a check. When
the architects of our democracy wrote the magnificent words of the
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a
promissory note to which every American was to autumn heir. This annotation was a
promise that all men - aye, blackness men also every bit white men - would be
guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, freedom, 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
cheque that has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we pass up to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We
decline to believe that there are bereft funds in the swell vaults of
opportunity of this nation. And then we've come to cash this bank check, a check
that will requite usa upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice.
We have likewise come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the tearing
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 existent 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
fourth dimension to elevator our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid
rock of alliance. Now is the fourth dimension to brand justice a reality for all of
God'due south children.

It would exist fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.
This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not laissez passer
until there is an invigorating fall of liberty and equality. Nineteen
sixty-three is not an end but a kickoff. Those who hoped that the Negro
needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude
awakening if the nation returns to business every bit usual. There will be neither
rest nor quiet in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship
rights. The whirlwinds of defection will continue to milk 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 up on the
warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of
gaining our rightful place nosotros must non be guilty of wrongful deeds. Permit us
non 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
aeroplane of dignity and discipline. Nosotros must non allow our creative protest to
degenerate into physical violence. Once more and once again we must rise to the
majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul forcefulness. The marvelous
new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must non lead us to
a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, every bit evidenced
by their presence here today, have come up to realize that their destiny is tied
up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is
inextricably leap to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And equally we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always
march ahead. Nosotros cannot plough back. There are those who are asking the
devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" Nosotros can never be
satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of
police brutality. We tin can never be satisfied equally long every bit our bodies, heavy
with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways
and the hotels of the cities. Nosotros cannot exist satisfied equally long equally the Negro's
bones mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger 1. Nosotros 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 equally
long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York
believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no nosotros are not satisfied and
nosotros will not exist satisfied until justice rolls down similar waters and
righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come hither out of dandy
trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells.
Some of yous take come from areas where your quest for freedom left you
battered by storms of persecution and staggered past the winds of law
brutality. Yous take been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to
work with the religion that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, become dorsum to Alabama, go back to South
Carolina, go dorsum to Georgia, become 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 - then even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I
however have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation volition ascent up and live out the
true significant of its creed: "We hold these truths to exist self-evident, that all
men are created equal."

I accept a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of
one-time slaves and the sons of erstwhile slave owners will be able to sit down down
together at the table of brotherhood.

I accept a dream that one day even the land of Mississippi, a state
sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the rut of oppression,
will be transformed into an haven of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four footling children will one day live in a nation
where they will not exist judged by the color of their peel but by the content
of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one solar day down in Alabama, with its fell racists,
with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition
and nullification - one day correct there in Alabama little black boys and
black girls will exist able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as
sisters and brothers.

I take a dream today.

I have a dream that one 24-hour interval every valley shall be exalted, and every
hill and mountain shall be made low, the crude places will be made obviously,
and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord
shall exist revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I get dorsum to the South with.
With this religion we will exist 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
organized religion we will exist able to piece of work together, to pray together, to struggle
together, to become to jail together, to stand up up for liberty together, knowing
that we will be free one day.

This will be the day, this volition be the day when all of God'southward children will
exist able to sing with new meaning "My state 'tis of thee, sweetness land of
freedom, of thee I sing. Land where my male parent'south died, land of the Pilgrim's
pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"

And if America is to exist a great nation, this must become true. And so
allow liberty ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let
liberty ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring
from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom band from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Allow
freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

Simply not but that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Sentry Mountain of Tennessee.

Permit freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi - from
every mountainside.

Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when nosotros allow
freedom ring - when we let it band from every village and every hamlet,
from every country and every city, we volition exist able to speed up that day when
all of God'south children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics - volition be able to join hands and sing in the words
of the quondam Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Gratuitous at terminal! Thank God Almighty,
we are complimentary at concluding!"

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Distribution statement: Accepted every bit part of the Douglass Athenaeum of American Public Address (http://douglass.speech.nwu.edu) on May 26, 1999. Prepared by D. Oetting (http://nonce.com/oetting).

Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise redistribute this file, provided this distribution argument is included and appropriate point of origin credit is given to the preparer and Douglass.

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