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00:00:00I have the pleasure to present to you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
00:00:12I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history
00:00:21as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
00:00:30Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today
00:00:48signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
00:00:53This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves
00:01:04who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.
00:01:11It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
00:01:19But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.
00:01:32One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation
00:01:42and the chains of discrimination.
00:01:47One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty
00:01:53in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.
00:01:59One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society
00:02:11and finds himself in exile in his own land.
00:02:17And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
00:02:23In a sense, we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.
00:02:30When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution
00:02:38and the Declaration of Independence,
00:02:40they were signing a promissory note
00:02:45to which every American was to fall out.
00:02:50This note was a promise that all men,
00:02:54yes, black men as well as white men,
00:02:58would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty,
00:03:04and the pursuit of happiness.
00:03:06It is obvious today
00:03:09that America has defaulted on this promissory note
00:03:14insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.
00:03:20Instead of honoring this sacred obligation,
00:03:26America has given the Negro people a bad check,
00:03:30a check which has come back, marked insufficient funds.
00:03:34But we refuse to believe that the Bank of Justice is bankrupt.
00:03:54We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds
00:03:58in the great bulks of opportunity of this nation.
00:04:01And so we've come to cash this check,
00:04:04a check that will give us upon demand
00:04:07the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
00:04:10We have also come to this hallowed spot
00:04:23to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.
00:04:29Now, this is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off
00:04:37or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
00:04:40Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.
00:04:47Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation
00:05:00to the sunlit path of racial justice.
00:05:03Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice
00:05:13to the solid rock of brotherhood.
00:05:15Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
00:05:24It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.
00:05:30This sweltering summit of the Negroes' legitimate discontent
00:05:36will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
00:05:451963 is not an end but a beginning.
00:05:48Those who hope that the Negroes needed to blow off steam
00:05:53and will now be content
00:05:57will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
00:06:02There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America
00:06:21until the Negroes granted his citizenship rights.
00:06:25The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation
00:06:31until the bright day of justice emerges.
00:06:36But that is something that I must say to my people
00:06:39who stand on the warm threshold which leads them to the palace of justice.
00:06:47In the process of gaining our rightful place,
00:06:51we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
00:06:56Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom
00:07:00by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
00:07:12We must not allow our creative protests
00:07:22to degenerate into physical violence.
00:07:25Again and again,
00:07:28we must rise to the majestic heights
00:07:31of meeting physical force with soul force.
00:07:36The marvelous new militancy
00:07:38which has indulged the Negro community
00:07:41must not lead us to a distrust of all white people.
00:07:45For many of our white brothers as evidenced by their presence here today
00:07:50have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
00:08:10We cannot walk alone.
00:08:13As we walk,
00:08:15we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
00:08:21We cannot turn back.
00:08:24There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights,
00:08:29when will you be satisfied?
00:08:31When will you be satisfied?
00:08:32Never.
00:08:33We can never be satisfied
00:08:35as long as the Negro is the victim of all the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
00:08:42We cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the city.
00:08:55We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote,
00:09:01and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
00:09:16No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied
00:09:22until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
00:09:35I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.
00:09:51Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells.
00:09:58Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom
00:10:03left you battered by the storms of persecution
00:10:08and staggered by the winds of police brutality.
00:10:12You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
00:10:17Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
00:10:25Go back to Mississippi.
00:10:27Go back to Alabama.
00:10:29Go back to South Carolina.
00:10:31Go back to Georgia.
00:10:32Go back to Louisiana.
00:10:34Go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities.
00:10:39Knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
00:10:44Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
00:10:47I say to you today, my friends.
00:11:02So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
00:11:10It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
00:11:17I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.
00:11:29We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
00:11:45I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia,
00:11:52the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners
00:11:57will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
00:12:02I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi,
00:12:09a state sweltering with the heat of injustice,
00:12:16sweltering with the heat of oppression,
00:12:19will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
00:12:24I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
00:12:34where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
00:12:37but by the content of their character.
00:12:39I have a dream today.
00:12:41I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists,
00:13:00with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification,
00:13:06one day right there 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.
00:13:17I have a dream today.
00:13:26I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,
00:13:31and every hill and mountain shall be made low,
00:13:34the rough places will be made plain,
00:13:36and the crooked places will be made straight,
00:13:38and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
00:13:40and all flesh shall see it together.
00:13:43This is our hope.
00:13:45This is the faith that I go back to the south with.
00:13:49With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
00:13:56With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
00:14:06With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together,
00:14:13to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
00:14:19This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning,
00:14:30my country tears of thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing, land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride.
00:14:41From every mountainside, let freedom ring, and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
00:14:50And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
00:14:56Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
00:15:01Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
00:15:05Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
00:15:09Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
00:15:14But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
00:15:20Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
00:15:25Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside.
00:15:35Let freedom ring, and when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring,
00:15:43when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city,
00:15:50we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men,
00:15:57Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands
00:16:03and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, free at last, free at last.
00:16:09Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.
00:16:12I have the pleasure to present to you Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
00:16:32I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history
00:16:50as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
00:16:56Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today
00:17:16signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
00:17:22This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves
00:17:32who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.
00:17:38It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
00:17:49But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free.
00:17:59100 years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation
00:18:10and the chains of discrimination.
00:18:14100 years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty
00:18:20in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.
00:18:26100 years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society
00:18:38and finds himself in exile in his own land.
00:18:44And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
00:18:50In a sense, we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.
00:18:56When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,
00:19:08they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall out.
00:19:18This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men,
00:19:26would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
00:19:36It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note
00:19:42insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.
00:19:48Instead of honoring this sacred obligation,
00:19:52America has given the Negro people a bad check,
00:19:57a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.
00:20:01But we refuse to believe that the Bank of Justice is bankrupt.
00:20:18We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds
00:20:25and the great balks of opportunity of this nation.
00:20:28And so we've come to cash this check,
00:20:31a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom
00:20:35and the security of justice.
00:20:47We have also come to this hallowed spot
00:20:52to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.
00:20:57this is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off
00:21:04or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
00:21:08Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.
00:21:19Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation
00:21:28to the sunlit path of racial justice.
00:21:30Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice
00:21:40to the solid rock of brotherhood.
00:21:42Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
00:21:52It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.
00:21:59This sweltering summit of the Negroes' legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
00:22:121963 is not an end but a beginning.
00:22:17Those who hope that the Negroes needed to blow off steam
00:22:22and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
00:22:31There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negroes granted his citizenship rights.
00:22:53The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
00:23:03But that is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice.
00:23:14In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
00:23:23Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
00:23:31We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.
00:23:53Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
00:24:03The marvelous new militancy which has indulged the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people.
00:24:13For many of our white brothers as evidenced by their presence here today have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
00:24:38We cannot walk alone.
00:24:40As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
00:24:50We cannot turn back.
00:24:53There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied?
00:25:00We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of all the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
00:25:09We can never be satisfied.
00:25:12As long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain margin in the motels and the highways and the hotels of the city.
00:25:23We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote.
00:25:35And a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
00:25:39No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
00:25:58I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.
00:26:21Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells.
00:26:26Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.
00:26:40You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
00:26:45Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
00:26:53Go back to Mississippi.
00:26:56Go back to Alabama.
00:26:57Go back to South Carolina.
00:26:59Go back to Georgia.
00:27:00Go back to Louisiana.
00:27:02Go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities.
00:27:07Knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
00:27:12Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
00:27:16I say to you today, my friends.
00:27:19So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
00:27:38It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
00:27:45I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.
00:27:57We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
00:28:12I 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.
00:28:29I 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, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
00:28:51I 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.
00:29:06I 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.
00:29:34One 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.
00:29:44I have a dream today.
00:29:45I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted.
00:29:58Every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
00:30:11This is our hope.
00:30:12This is our hope.
00:30:13This is our hope.
00:30:14This is a faith that I go back to the south with.
00:30:17With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
00:30:24With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
00:30:34With 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.
00:30:47This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, my country tears of thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing, land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside.
00:31:12Let freedom ring, and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
00:31:18So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
00:31:23Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
00:31:28Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
00:31:33Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
00:31:37Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
00:31:42But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
00:31:48Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
00:31:53Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside.
00:32:02Let freedom ring, and when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city,
00:32:18we 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,
00:32:33free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.
00:32:38I have the pleasure to present to you Dr. Martin Luther King, JR.
00:32:58I 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.
00:33:23Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
00:33:50This 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.
00:34:06It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
00:34:13But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free.
00:34:25100 years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
00:34:41100 years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.
00:34:54100 years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.
00:35:11And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
00:35:18In a sense, we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.
00:35:24When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,
00:35:37they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall out.
00:35:46This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men,
00:35:54would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
00:36:03It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.
00:36:15Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check,
00:36:25a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.
00:36:41But we refuse to believe that the Bank of Justice is bankrupt.
00:36:49We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great balks of opportunity of this nation.
00:36:56And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
00:37:06We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.
00:37:25This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
00:37:37Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.
00:37:47Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.
00:37:58Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
00:38:10Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
00:38:19It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.
00:38:27This sweltering summit of the Negroes legitimate discontent will not pass until that is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
00:38:391963 is not an end, but a beginning.
00:38:44And those who hope that the Negroes needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
00:38:57And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negroes granted his citizenship rights.
00:39:20The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
00:39:31But that is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads them to the palace of justice.
00:39:42In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
00:39:51Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
00:40:07We must not fail to conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.
00:40:14We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.
00:40:21Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
00:40:30The marvelous new militancy which has indulged the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people.
00:40:40For many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is not alive.
00:40:49They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
00:41:05We cannot walk alone.
00:41:08As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
00:41:16We cannot turn back.
00:41:19There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied?
00:41:28We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of all the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
00:41:37We can never be satisfied.
00:41:38We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote, and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
00:41:42We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote, and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
00:41:57We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote, and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
00:42:12No.
00:42:13No.
00:42:14No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
00:42:27We will not be satisfied, and we will never be satisfied.
00:42:34I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.
00:42:48Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells.
00:42:53Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution
00:43:02and staggered by the winds of police brutality.
00:43:07You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
00:43:12Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
00:43:21Go back to Mississippi.
00:43:23Go back to Alabama.
00:43:25Go back to South Carolina.
00:43:27Go back to Georgia.
00:43:28Go back to Louisiana.
00:43:29Go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities.
00:43:34Knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
00:43:40Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
00:43:44I say to you today, my friends.
00:43:47So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
00:44:06It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
00:44:12I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.
00:44:24We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
00:44:31I 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.
00:44:57I 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, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
00:45:19Because 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.
00:45:34I have a dream today.
00:45:36I 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.
00:46:01One 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.
00:46:12I have a dream today.
00:46:13I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted and every hill and mountain shall be made low.
00:46:29The rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
00:46:38With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
00:47:01With 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.
00:47:15This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, my country tears of thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing, land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride.
00:47:36From every mountainside, let freedom ring, and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
00:47:46So 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.
00:48:00Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado, let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California, but not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia, let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee,
00:48:21Let freedom ring from every hill from every mountainside, let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring, and when this happens,
00:48:32when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city,
00:48:45We 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,
00:48:56will 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.
00:49:07I have the pleasure to present to you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
00:49:27I 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.
00:49:57Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
00:50:17This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves.
00:50:27who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.
00:50:33It came as a joyous daybreak
00:50:36to end the long night of their captivity.
00:50:43But one hundred years later,
00:50:48the Negro still is not free.
00:50:54One hundred years later,
00:50:57the life of the Negro is still, sadly, crippled by the manacles of segregation
00:51:06and the chains of discrimination.
00:51:09One hundred years later,
00:51:12the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty,
00:51:16in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.
00:51:21One hundred years later,
00:51:25the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society
00:51:33and finds himself in exile in his own land.
00:51:38And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
00:51:45In a sense, we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.
00:51:51When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution
00:52:00Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,
00:52:02they were signing a promissory note
00:52:07to which every American was to fall out.
00:52:11This note was a promise that all men,
00:52:16yes, black men as well as white men,
00:52:20would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
00:52:29It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note
00:52:37insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.
00:52:42Instead of honoring this sacred obligation,
00:52:48America has given the Negro people a bad check,
00:52:53a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.
00:52:56But we refuse to believe that the Bank of Justice is bankrupt.
00:53:17We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds
00:53:21in the great bulks of opportunity of this nation.
00:53:23And so we've come to cash this check,
00:53:26a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom
00:53:30and the security of justice.
00:53:32We have also come to this hallowed spot
00:53:45to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.
00:53:54This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off
00:53:59or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
00:54:04Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.
00:54:15Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation
00:54:22to the sunlit path of racial justice.
00:54:25Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice
00:54:35to the solid rock of brotherhood.
00:54:37Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
00:54:46It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.
00:54:53This sweltering summit of the Negroes' legitimate discontent
00:54:58will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
00:55:051963 is not an end but a beginning.
00:55:12Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam
00:55:17and will now be content
00:55:19will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
00:55:24There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America
00:55:43until the Negro has granted his citizenship rights.
00:55:47The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation
00:55:53until the bright day of justice emerges.
00:55:58But that is something that I must say to my people
00:56:02who stand on the warm threshold which leads them to the palace of justice.
00:56:09In the process of gaining our rightful place,
00:56:13we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
00:56:18Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom
00:56:22by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
00:56:35We must never conduct our struggle on the highest plane of dignity and discipline.
00:56:41We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.
00:56:48Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
00:56:57The marvelous new militancy, which has indulged the Negro community,
00:57:04must not lead us to a distrust of all white people.
00:57:07For many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today,
00:57:12have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
00:57:31We cannot walk alone.
00:57:35As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
00:57:44We cannot turn back.
00:57:47There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights,
00:57:52when will you be satisfied?
00:57:55We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is a victim of all the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
00:58:04We can never be satisfied.
00:58:07As long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel,
00:58:12cannot gain lodging in the motels and the highways and the hotels of the city.
00:58:18We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote,
00:58:30and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
00:58:34No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters
00:58:51and righteousness like a mighty stream.
00:58:53I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.
00:59:13Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells.
00:59:18Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution
00:59:30and staggered by the winds of police brutality.
00:59:35You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
00:59:39Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
00:59:47Go back to Mississippi.
00:59:49Go back to Alabama.
00:59:51Go back to South Carolina.
00:59:53Go back to Georgia.
00:59:54Go back to Louisiana.
00:59:56Go back to the slums and ghettos.
00:59:59I am the host of the way that daar did not have to be brought to you all.
01:00:03And the of those of our-
01:00:05And the of those of our-
01:00:08Oh 95 really?
01:00:21I love those of our-