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I Have aDream MartinLuther King I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history asthe greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Fivescore years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today,signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a greatbeacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in theflames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the night ofcaptivity. Butone hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that Negro is still notfree. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled bythe manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred yearslater, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in midst of a vast oceanof material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishingin 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. Ina sense, we have come to our nation’s Capital to cash a check. When thearchitects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution andthe Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which everyAmerican was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would beguaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Itis obvious today 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; a check which hascome back marked “insufficient funds”. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. Werefuse to believe that there are insufficient cash this check — a checkthat will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security ofjustice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of thefierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling offor to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make realthe promises of Democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolatevalley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time toopen the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to liftour nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock ofbrotherhood. Itwould be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and tounderestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of theNegro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigoratingautumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but abeginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will nowbe contend will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business asusual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro isgranted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shakethe foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. Butthere is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm thresholdwhich leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightfulplace we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy ourthirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. Wemust 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 forcewith soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negrocommunity must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of ourwhite brother, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realizethat their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom isinextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. Andas we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turnback. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When willyou be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of theunspeakable horrors of police brutality. Wecan 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. Wecannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smallerghetto to a larger one. Wecan never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhoodand robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. Wecan never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and aNegro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are notsatisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like watersand righteousness like a mighty stream. Iam not unmindful that some of you come here out of great trials andtribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of youhave come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by thestorms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You havebeen the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith thatunearned suffering is redemptive. Goback to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back toGeorgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northerncities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us notwallow in the valley of despair. Isay to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties andfrustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rootedin the American dream. Ihave a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the truemeaning of its creed:“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are createdequal.” Ihave a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slavesand the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at atable of brotherhood. Ihave a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state,sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed intoan oasis of freedom and justice. Ihave a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation wherethey will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of theircharacter. Ihave a dream today. Ihave a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips arepresently dipping with the words of interposition and nullification, will betransformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will beable to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together assisters and brother. Ihave a dream today. Ihave a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill andmountain shall be made low , the rough places will be made plain, and thecrooked places will be made straight, and the glory of Lord shall be revealed,and all flesh shall be see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. Withthis faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone ofhope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of ournation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will beable to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jailtogether, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free oneday. This will be the day when all of God’s children will be to sing with anew meaning, “My country’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Landwhere my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside,let freedom ring.” Andif America is to be a great nation, this must become true. Solet freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedomring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from theheightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Letfreedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Letfreedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! Butnot only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Letfreedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Letfreedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From everymountainside, let freedom ring. When we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village andevery hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up thatday 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 ofold Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”
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发表于 2013-9-10 08:37:54
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