I Have a Dream Speech: Martin Luther King, Jr.
(August 28, 1963)
"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose
symbolic shadow we stand, 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 captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic
fact that the Negro is still languishing in the corners
of American society and finds himself an exile in
his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize
an appalling condition.
In a sense we have 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 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 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 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 open the doors of opportunity to all
of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation
from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid
rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency
of the moment and to underestimate the determination
of the Negro. 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. 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 foundation 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. 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 and their freedom is inextricably
bound to our freedom. We can not walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall
march ahead. We cannot turn back. 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 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 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 tribulations. Some of you have
come fresh from narrow 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, that in spite of the
difficulties and frustrations of the moment 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 these truths to be self 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 slaveowners
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 desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice
and 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 the state of Alabama, whose
governor's lips are presently dripping with the words
of interposition and nullification, will be transformed
into a situation where little black boys and black
girls will be able to join hands with little white
boys and white girls and walk together 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, and rough
places will be made plains, 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 the faith with which I return
to the south. With this faith we will be able to hew
out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With
this faith 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 when all of God's children will
be able to sing with a new meaning 'My country 'tis
of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land
where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride,
from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'
And if America is to be a great nation this must come
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 peaks of California.
But not only that --- let freedom ring from Stone Mountain
in 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 let 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!'"
Dr. King's Speeches
These are the other two famous speeches by Dr. King:
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