"I Have ADream"
by Martin Luther King,Jr.

Delivered on the stepsat the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963

Fivescore years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we standsigned the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as agreat beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had beenseared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyousdaybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred yearslater, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

Onehundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled bythe manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. Onehundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty inthe midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred yearslater, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of Americansociety and finds himself an exile in his own land.

Sowe have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In asense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When thearchitects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of theConstitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing apromissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

Thisnote was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienablerights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvioustoday that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar asher citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacredobligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which hascome back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse tobelieve that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believethat there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunityof this nation.

Sowe have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upondemand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We havealso come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierceurgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of coolingoff or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the timeto rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to thesunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors ofopportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift ournation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock ofbrotherhood.

Itwould be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the momentand to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This swelteringsummer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until thereis an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteensixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that theNegro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have arude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There willbe neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is grantedhis citizenship rights.

Thewhirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of ournation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there issomething that I must say to my people who stand on the warmthreshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process ofgaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking fromthe cup of bitterness and hatred.

Wemust forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity anddiscipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate intophysical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majesticheights of meeting physical force with soul force.

Themarvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community mustnot lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our whitebrothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come torealize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and theirfreedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

Wecannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that weshall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who areasking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you besatisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies,heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motelsof the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfiedas long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to alarger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro inMississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he hasnothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we willnot be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters andrighteousness like a mighty stream.

Iam not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trialsand tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Someof you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left youbattered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds ofpolice brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering isredemptive.

Goback to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go backto Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northerncities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, myfriends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of themoment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in theAmerican dream.

Ihave a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out thetrue meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to beself-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dreamthat one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slavesand the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down togetherat a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the stateof Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injusticeand oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom andjustice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in anation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin butby the content of their character. I have a dream today.

Ihave a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lipsare presently dripping with the words of interposition andnullification, will be transformed into a situation where littleblack boys and black girls will be able to join hands with littlewhite boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shallbe exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the roughplaces will be made plain, and the crooked places will be madestraight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all fleshshall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with whichI return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out ofthe mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will beable to transform the jangling discords of our nation into abeautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able towork together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jailtogether, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will befree one day.

Thiswill be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing witha new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty,of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim'spride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And ifAmerica is to be a great nation, this must become true. So letfreedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Letfreedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ringfrom the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ringfrom the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from thecurvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ringfrom Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from LookoutMountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and everymolehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

Whenwe let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and everyhamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed upthat day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jewsand Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join handsand sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last!free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"