A great American once had a great dream:
Five score years ago, a great American signed a momentous decree that came as a great beacon light of hope for millions who had been seared in the flames. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night.
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.
America has defaulted on this promissory note, Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given 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've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have come to remind America of the fierce urgency. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, Now is the time to rise from the dark, desolate valley to the sunlit path of justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of Injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all.
It would be fatal for our nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating freedom and equality. This is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that we 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 each is granted his citizenship rights. Revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining your rightful place, you 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 struggle to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestlc heights of meeting physical force with soul force, The marvelous new milftancy which has engulfed us must not lead us to distrust of all people, for many of our brothers have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom, We cannot walk alone.
We must take the pledge that we will always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who ask "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as there is one victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity. We can not be satisfied as long as one cannot vote and another 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 water and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Some have come here out of great trials and tribulation. Some have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by persecution and staggered by police brutality. You have been veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back; go back to the slums and ghettos 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 must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have 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--that we find these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal. J have a dream that one day we will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day, even 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 children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged by the contents of their character. I have a dream today 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 all children will be able to join hands as sisters and brothers.
This is our hope. This is the faith with which we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. With this hope 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 struggle together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day, this ·will be the day when we 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 Pilgrim's pride; from every mountainside, let freedom ring"--and if America is to become a great nation, this must become true.
So let freedom ring. And when we allow freedom to ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all blacks and whites, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics--will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last; Thank God, almighty, we are free at last."
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