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#Post#: 744--------------------------------------------------
I HAVE A DREAM
DIR By: TPE
Date: January 19, 2016, 11:00 am
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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 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.
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.
[…]
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.
[…] Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. […] And
there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the
Negro is granted his citizenship rights. […]
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. And they have come to realize that their
freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk
alone. […]
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."
[…]
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today,
my friends.
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.
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."
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.
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!
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.
I have a dream today!
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."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith 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.
[…]
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, and 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!
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