I have the pleasure to present to you dr. Martin Luther King
I'm 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 100 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 100 years later the Negro lives on a lonely
island of poverty I have but one day this nation will rise up
live out the true meaning of its Creed we always choose to be self-evident that
all men are created
I have a dream sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave on 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 be transformed into an oasis of freedom
and justice I have a dream my 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 agreed
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
little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white
boys and white girls
they're revealing mountain shall be made low the rough places will be made plain
and the crooked places will be made with this faith we will be able to hew out of
the mountain of despair of soul 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
we'll 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 pilgrims pride
from every mountainside let freedom ring and of America's to be a great nation
this must become true so let's 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 snow-capped Rockies of Colorado let freedom ring
from the curvaceous slopes of California but not on to that let freedom ring from
Stone Mountain of Georgia let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain
of Tennessee let freedom ring from every Hill
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