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There is something that I must say to my
people.... 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 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 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 say to you today, my friends, that in spite
of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment
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 slaveowners will be able to sit
down together at the table of brotherhood.
...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.
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...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 plains,
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 with which
I return to the South. 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 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.”...
When we let freedom 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!”
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