Me falni qe po e sjell ne anglisht ...
Speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Martin Luther King Jr.
Fivescore years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic
shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This
momentous decree came as a great beacon of 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 captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact
that 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. 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,
the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society
and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here
today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's Capitol to cash a
check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent
words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,
they were signing a promissory note to which every American was
to fall heir. This note was the promise that all men would be
guaranteed 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." But we refuse to believe that the bank of
justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are
insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this
nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will
give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of
justice.
We have also come to this 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. Now is the time to make real the promises of
democracy. 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 to open the doors of opportunity to all God's
children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands
of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of
the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro.
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.
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.
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.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of
dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest
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 is tied up with
our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our
freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march
ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the
devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can
never be satisfied long as the Negro is the victim of the
unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
We can never be satisfied 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. 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 a Negro in Mississippi
cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for
which to vote. No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be
satisfied until the justice rolls down like waters and
righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of
great trials and tribulations. 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 or persecution
and staggered by 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; 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. Let us not
wallow in the valley of despair.
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 slave-owners will be
able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day, even in the state of
Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice
and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and
justice.
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.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose
governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of
interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a
situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to
join hands with little white 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 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 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 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 snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!
But not only that.
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
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!"
28 Aug 1963
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