"I have a Dream"

by Martin Luther King Jr
[Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on 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 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 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 inalienable 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 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 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 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 a 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 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, 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 with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew our 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 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 a. 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 Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks 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 every 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!"

Yeah, Hades and Tae both seem to understand the meaning. The others just generalize and stereotype.

Hades wrote: Once again, a thread that easily shows the ignorance of our members.

Sometimes, people here ask "why aren't there more female members" or "why aren't there more black players?"

Big surprise.

*rolls eyes*

Hades wrote: I find it ammusing that all in the same thread, that some expect white children not to "act black" but at the same time they expect blacks to "act white."

Word.

haha yellow and red....

I like this thread...

Plenti, you're still racist, because you stereotype.

I laugh because if someone started a thread making fun of white people all of you would be up in arms.

Why don't you explain in a little more detail, ryan, what this "rap culture" is that "most" black people either belong to or want to belong to...

Because I'm not sure what you mean.  Help a brotha out.

^^^^^^  You serious?

Well, stick around - Hades is one of the forum's premier silliness-slapper-downers.

:)

Okay impulse, if you could care less for what MLK did, then screw Veteran's Day. I don't care what they did, I'm just happy I get a day off.

Does that upset you? I bet it does. MLK contributed to the human race and equality just as much as our veterans, so by not caring it is very obvious how you feel about nonwhites.

Plentifulballs wrote: I do realize that not all black people are like that, but the large majority in Philadelphia are.

I think this is part of the issue...

Alright, so once again you skip around to justify previous posts. Well whatever, I'm sure the black people are only targeting whites because they in heart are the true racists. I mean, it's not like whites ever targeted blacks before. So you had a few run-ins with a minority, ohh well. I've had my fair share as an officer with the majority, and they are no different. It's common sense that in a black neighborhood there would be black criminals. Just like in a white neighborhood there would be white criminals. Oh wait, you would probably say there wouldn't be criminals at all in the white neighborhoods.

PlentifulBalls wrote: People who live out in the midwest or just more rural areas don't know what its like.

I am oddly offended on behalf of Midwesterners.  I encourage you to make your statement in Hyde Park or Cabrini Green, or just anywhere in Detroit or East St. Louis.  Or Cincinnati (Mike Tyson didn't grow up in a nice neighborhood, I am pretty sure) or Cleveland, or anywhere else for that matter...

Every city in the country has an "inner city" where the po' black folk live.

But I am digressing from the actual subject of the discussion.  My apologies.  Back to your regularly scheduled program.

I have a few black friends, and they are very nice.

I have a few white friends, and they are very nice.

There are some black people who act like a**holes and I hate them.

There are some white people who act like a**holes and I hate them.

I hate the double-standard as well.  A certain black person in the a**hole catagory calls white people "cracker" or "whitey".  But if that white person calls that black person a slur (I won't name one because of that nasty double-standard) he would be jumped and beaten up. I've seen it happen, several times, so don't say i'm racist.

Is that really a double standard?

Ask yourself - WHY do people get upset when you call a black man a n-i-g-g-e-r, but nobody particularly cares when you call a white man a cracker?

Could it have something to do with the same reason that **edited**er doesn't make it through the forum filter, but cracker does?

Could it have something to do with how a white man can shrug off cracker, comfortable that in the end being white is mostly viewed as a GOOD thing, and not an insult, no matter what label you use; but N-I-G-G-E-R is one of the filthiest words in our language?

It is not a double standard.  It is apples and oranges.