Ihavadrm(A) Essay, Research Paper

M.L. KING’S “I HAVE A DREAM” SPEECH – AUG. 28, 1963I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in historyas the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of ournation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadowwe stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclaimation. Thismomentous decree came as a great beacon of hope to millions ofslaves, who had been seared in the flames of whitheringinjustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night oftheir captivity. But one hundered years later, the coloredAmerica is still not free. One hundred years later, the life ofthe colored American is still sadly crippled by the manacle ofsegregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the colored American lives on a lonelyisland of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of materialprosperity. One hundred years later, the colored American isstill languishing in the corners of American society and findshimself an exile in his own land So we have come here today todramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we have come to our Nation’s Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificentwords of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,they were signing a promissory note to which every Anerican wasto fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well aswhite men, would be guaranteed to the inalienable rights of lifeliberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissorynote insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead ofhonoring this sacred obligation, America has given its coloredpeople a bad check, a check that 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 thegreat vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come tocash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the richesof freedom and security of justice. We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of thefierce urgency of Now. This is not time to engage in the luxuryof cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy. Now it the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley ofsegregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now it the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racialinjustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God’schildren. I would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of themoment and to underestimate the determination of it’s coloredcitizens. This sweltering summer of the colored people’slegitimate discontent will not pass until there is aninvigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteensixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope thatthe colored Americans needed to blow off steam and will now becontent will have a rude awakening if the nation returns tobusiness as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until thecolored citizen is granted his citizenship rights. Thewhirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations ofour nation until the bright day of justice emerges. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with thefatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of thehighways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the colored person’s basicmobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped oftheir selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “forwhite only.”We cannot be satisfied as long as a colored person in Mississippicannot vote and a colored person in New York believes he hasnothing for which to vote. No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied untiljustice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty

stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of yourtrials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas whereyour quest for freedom left you battered by storms ofpersecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue towork with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to SouthCarolina go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to theslums and ghettos of our modern cities, knowing that somehow thissituation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of dispair. I say to you, myfriends, we have the difficulties of today and tommorrow. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in theAmerican dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live outthe true meaning of its creed. We hold thise truths to beself-evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia thesons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will beable to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, astate sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformedinto an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live ina nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skinbut by their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its viciousracists, with its governor having his lips dripping with thewords of interpostion and nullification; that one day right downin Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to joinhands with little white boys and white girls as s)fYers andbrothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed,every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low,the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places willbe made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed andall flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to theSouth with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of themountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the janglingdiscords of our nation into a beautiful symphomy of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to praytogether, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climbup 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 tosing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land ofliberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, land ofthe 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 hilltops of New Hampshire. Letfreedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies ofPennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvacious slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain ofGeorgia. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi andevery mountainside. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from everytenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, wewill be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children,black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants andCatholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words ofthe old spiritual, “Free at last, free at last. Thank GodAlmighty, we are free at last.”————————————-Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net – aa300)Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public Telecomputing Network. ——————————————————————————