“Every man is our
brother, and every man’s burden is our own. Where poverty exists, all are
poorer. Where hate flourishes, all are corrupted. Where injustice reins, all
are unequal.” –Whitney Young
50 years ago on this day, the group of men
fondly known as the “Big Six” marched arm in arm with hundreds of thousands of
civil rights activists and supporters from the Washington Monument to the
Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. Armed with the courage, faith, and
perseverance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, Congressman John
Lewis, Asa Phillip Randolph, Whitney Young, and James Farmer, Jr., over 200,000
individuals were led through the Washington Mall and stood unified to send a
resounding message demanding the end of civil and economic discrimination.
During preparations of the March on Washington
rally, organizers were harassed repeatedly, often receiving death threats to
cease their actions. However, civil rights leaders everywhere did not
waver and continued to move forward. Through their efforts the civil
rights movement in America galvanized people everywhere to support the cause
that every man, woman, and child deserved the same unalienable rights that the
constitution guarantees.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a Dream”
speech is often revered as the highlight of that historic march. His
speech still sparks inspiration, provides hope, and infuses courage to those
who read those remarkable words and dares to dream. Dr. King and the
other members of the “Big Six” stood up to intolerance and racial injustice in
America, and worked tirelessly to spread their message of equality for all
utilizing nonviolent protests. Through their efforts, and the efforts of
countless others, the United States of American was led down a better path and
has become a better and stronger nation.
Less than a year later the Civil Rights Act of
1964 was passed. Sadly Medgar Evers, Rev. George Lee, Herbert Lee,
William Lewis Moore, and many other civil rights activists were killed prior to
its passage.
Posted below is the actual text of Dr. King’s “I
have a Dream” speech.
Full text to the "I Have a Dream"
speech:
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 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.
They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our
freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we
shall always 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 children 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. 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!”
