On August 28, 1963, roughly around 250,000
people took part in the March for Jobs and Freedom. In addition to Dr. King, speakers included the
Myrlie Evers, the widow of the recently slain Medgar Evars, and John Lewis, the youngest of the Big
Six civil rights leaders and current House Representative of Georgia’s 5th District.
for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago,
Direct reference to Abraham Lincoln's
“Gettysburg Address.” The entire program was held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the
Emancipation Proclamation.
Signed in September, 1862 and put into
effect on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation changed the federal legal status of more
than 3 million people from “slave” to “free.” While the U.S. Civil War raged on for several more
years, the Proclamation served as an additional goal for those fighting for the freedom of
all peoples.
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, 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
in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an 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
The Declaration of Independence
begins “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness.” King equates this statement to a promissory note, or check, that
is owed to all people, not just the white men that have for long benefited while others
languish.
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."
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.
King’s reference to both “cooling off” and “gradualism” is a continuation of
a theme that King has hit on in previous speeches and writings. This is especially true of his
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” written several months earlier. He writes of his disappointment
in white moderates and that he has “almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's
great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the
Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who
prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the
presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot
agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the
timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly
advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ And that “this ‘wait’ almost
always meant ‘never.’”
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.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the
Negro's legitimate
discontent
A nice little nod and shift to
Shakespeare's Richard III. Here and elsewhere, King displays his mastery of metaphor.
Think of his earlier reference to the “bank of justice,” his play with the seasons here
and a later play with “whirlwinds of revolt” leading to“the bright day of justice.”
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 foundations 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.
King was a leader in the field of
non-violent protest, the belief that no matter the injustices one faces, one must face them
with calmness and goodness. It’s a belief sprung from the writings of Thoreau in
“Civil Disobedience” and manifest in the likes of Ghandi and King. His belief put him
at odds with the more militant wing of the Civil Rights struggle, perhaps best exemplified
by the early philosophy of Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party.
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.
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 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 chlidren are stripped of their selfhood 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.
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. 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.
References to events like the
horrible treatment of the participants of the Greensboro lunch counter sit-in, or those
viciously attacked by police dogs and water hoses in Birmingham.
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 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
The recently elected
Democrat
having his lips
dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that 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 exhalted, 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.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will 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.
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 fathers died, land of the Pilgrims' 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 snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of
California. But not only that; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from
Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
An interesting side
note to all this is the fact that Wallace ran as a Democrat—the party now
thought of as open to all people. At the time, the southern Democrats were
some of the most racist people in the world, a belief that put them at
odds with the party on a national level. Both Kennedy and Johnson were
Democrats, and both supported relatively progressive policies. In fact,
it was the Civil Rights movement that largely split the southern Democrats
away from their party. The Republican party, sensing an advantage, began
framing issues such as desegregation as a state’s right issue—a cause that
white southerners have long used to mask any number of horrible practices.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the Republicans worked to encourage the anger
and feelings of disenfranchisement of the southern white population to
great effect. It’s at this point that the shift from southern Democrat to
southern Republican begins. Since then, no Democratic presidential
candidate has won a majority of the electoral votes in the south
since 1976.
governor, George Wallace. In his inaugural speech, Wallace at one point said
“I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” King makes mention of the Rockies of
Colorado and the slopes of California—the most scenic spots of the country—but he also
specifically calls out Georgia's Stone Mountain and Lookout Mountain in Tennessee. Both
of these spots were well known as meeting points of the KKK throughout the 1950s and 60s.
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!"
