Remembering Martin
L. King Jr.
JANUARY 15, 2007.-
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929
- April 4, 1968), a Baptist pastor born in
Atlanta, Georgia, is considered a distinguished
American thanks to his continuos efforts to
promote
Civil Rights
for the African- American people in the United
States.
In 1948, he received a B.A from Morehouse
College, a prestigious academic
institution in Atlanta, where his parents had
also studied. After three years of religious
studies at Crozer Theological Seminary, in
Pennsylvania, he enrolled in graduate studies
at Boston University, receiving his Ph.D. in
1955.
He was elected president of Southern Christian
Leadership Conference in 1957 and the following
years, until the day his was murdered, he
dedicated his life to promote Civil Rights
and trying to achieve the equality of races
in the U.S. In 1963, he directed a historic
march
on Washington D.C., of 250,000 people to whom
he delivered his address, "I Have a Dream".
A year later, he won the Nobel Peace Prize
and the Presidential Medal of Freedom before
he was assassinated in 1968.
Here's the full text
of his most famous speech:
I Have a Dream (Delivered on the Lincoln Memorial
steps, August 28, 1963)
"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 languishing
in the corners of American society and finds
himself an exile in his own land. So we have
come here today to dramatize a shameful 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, 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.
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 quick sands
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
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.
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 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 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. 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
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, 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
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 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 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 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, When we allow freedom
to 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!"
Links of Interest:
America Celebrates
Achievements of Martin Luther King Jr.
U.S. Department of State- International
Information Programs
URL:http://usinfo.state.gov/scv/Archive/2006/Jan/11-901573.html
Dr. King's Legacy
The King Center
URL: lhttp://www.thekingcenter.org
Martin Luther
King Jr. - Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy.
U.S. Department of State- International Information Programs
URL: http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/38.htm
Martin Luther
King Jr. - A Biography.
Nobelprize.org
URL: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html
Tengo un Sueño
(en Español):
Discurso pronunciando en las gradas del Lincoln
Memorial, durante la Histórica Marcha
sobre Washington D.C. (agosto 28, 1963)
URL: http://bogota.usembassy.gov/wwwsmlks.shtml
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