Washington, USA. August 1963
“I have a dream that
one day on the red hills of Georgia 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 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.
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...
I have a dream that one
day in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips
dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one 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.
"I have a dream even
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 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. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South
with. 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 mountain side, 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 mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening
Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let 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 the Stone Mountain of
Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout
Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring
from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountain side. Let freedom ring...
When we allow freedom
to ring – when we let it ring from every city 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, Great God a-mighty, We are free at
last”.
The Reverend Dr Martin
Luther King Jr.