mlk: in memoriam
[...] 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 slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. i have a dream that one day even 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 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 [...]
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 every 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!"
delivered 28 august 1963 on the steps at the lincoln memorial in washington, dc. source: martin luther king, jr: the peaceful warrior, pocket books, ny 1968.
