I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King's famous 'I Have a Dream' speech still has a great relevance today - because if he were still alive and leading the fight for civil rights in other countries - he would no doubt be silenced, locked up or put under house arrest, by the governments of China, Russia, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia to name but a few tyrannical political regimes that would not tolerate Dr King's challenge to their rule - or the established order of doing things. 

Not for the colour of his skin, but for the content of his character - and his determination to stand up for other people's rights including their freedom to worship and follow a particular religion - of their own choice.

As it turned out Martin Luther King changed the laws in America and though there is always more work to do - the great significance of his achievement is that an African American President, Barack Obama, will be standing in the same spot where Dr King delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech - exactly 50 years ago today.

Not only that Martin Luther King and his supporters, black and white, changed the world without resorting to violence and murdering his neighbours - and his great example was followed by Nelson Mandela and his followers in ending the oppression of apartheid in South Africa.

So, here are the words spoken by Dr King on 28 August 2013 along with a YouTube clip of what he had to say - they still have the power to make the hairs on the back of amy neck stand up even though I've heard the speech many times before.  

YouTube link 


“I Have a Dream,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Address delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Washington, D.C., 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. [applause]

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. (Audience: My Lord) 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 (My Lord)[applause], the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve 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 (Yeah), 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 to 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."[sustained applause].

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. (My Lord)[laughter](Sure enough) We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check (Yes), a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom (Yes) and the security of justice. [applause]

We have also come to his 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. [applause] Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy. (My Lord) 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 [applause] to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time [applause] 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. And 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. [applause] 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. (My Lord) [applause] We must forever conduct our struggle on the highest plain of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative process 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 [applause] is tied up with our destiny. [applause] And they have come to realize their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make a pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who ask in the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the very victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

We can never be satisfied [applause] 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. [applause]

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 white only." [applause]

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. (Yes)[applause] No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” [applause]

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. (My
Lord) 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 (Yes) 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 (Yes), 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. (Yes) Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends [applause], so even though we face the difficulties of today and
tomorrow, I still have a dream. (Yes) It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day (Yes) 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.” (Yes) [applause]

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 (Well), sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice.

I have a dream (Well)[applause] 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. (My Lord)

I have a dream today. [applause]

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” (Yes), one day right down
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. [applause]

I have a dream that one day “every valley shall be exalted (Yes), every hill and mountain shall be
made low; the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight
(Yes) and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” (Yes)

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. (Yes) With this faith we will
be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. (Yes) With this faith we will be
able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

(Talk about it) With this faith (My Lord) we will be able to work together, to pray together, to
struggle together, to go to jail together, (Yes) to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we
will be free one day. [applause] This will be the day [applause continues], this will be the day
when all of God's children (Yes) will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country, 'tis of thee (Yes), sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my father's died, land of the pilgrim's pride (Yes),
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring (Yes) 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. (Yes, That’s right)

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. (Well)

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. (Yes)

But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. (Yes)

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. (Yes)

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. (Yes)

From every mountainside, let freedom ring. [applause]

And when this happens [applause continues], when we allow freedom ring,when we let it ring
from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city (Yes), 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 spiritual:

Free at last! (Yes) Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last. (applause)