i have a dream

　　five score years ago, a great american, in whose symbolicshadow we stand today, signed the emancipation proclamation. this momentousdecree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of negro slaves who hadbeen seared in the flames of withering injustice. it came as a joyous daybreakto end the long night of bad captivity.

　　but one hundred years lateer, the negro still is not free.one hundred years later, the life of the negro is still sadly crippled by themanacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. one hundred yearslater, the negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vastocean of material prosperity. one hundred years later, the negro is stilllanguished in the corners of american society and finds himself an exile in hisown land. so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

　　i am not unmindful that some of you have come here out ofgreat trials and tribulations. some of you have come fresh from narrow jailcells. some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left youbattered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of policebrutality. you have been the veterans of creative suffering. continue to workwith the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

　　go back to mississippi, go back to alabama, go back to southcarolina, go back to georgia, go back to louisiana, go back to the slums andghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can andwill be changed. let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

　　i say to you today, my friends, so even though we face thedifficulties of today and tomorrow, i still have a dream. it is a dream deeplyrooted in the american dream.

　　i have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, liveup to 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 thesons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sitdown together at the table of brotherhood.

　　i have a dream that one day even the state of mississippi, astate 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 children will one day live in anation where they will not be judged by the color if their skin but by thecontent of their character.

　　i have a dream today.

　　i have a dream that one day down in alabama with itsgovernor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition andnullification, one day right down in alabama little black boys and black girlswill be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sistersand 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 plain,and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the lord shallbe revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

　　this is our hope. this is the faith that i go back to thesouth with. with this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain ofdespair a stone of hope. with this faith we will be able to transform thejangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. withthis faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggletogether, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowingthat we will be free one day.

　　this will be the day when all of god’s children will be ableto 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 pilgrims’ pride,

　　from every mountainside

　　let freedom ring.

　　and if america is to be a great nation this must becometrue. 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 ofpennsylvania!

　　let freedom ring from the snowcapped rockies of colorado!

　　let freedom ring from the curvaceous slops of california!

　　but not only that; let freedom ring from stone mountain ofgeorgia!

　　let freedom ring from lookout mountain of tennessee!

　　let freedom ring from every hill and molehill ofmississippi!

　　from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

　　when we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from everyvillage and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able tospeed up that day when all of god’s children, black men and white men, jews andgentiles, protestants and catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in thewords of the old negro spiritual, “free at last! free at last! thank godalmighty, we are free at last!”