what are the words to dr. martin luther king jrs “i have a dream” speech?

Ceremonious rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Take a Dream" speech communication on Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the March on Washington. AFP via Getty Images hide explanation

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AFP via Getty Images

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the oversupply at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Take a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, every bit part of the March on Washington.

AFP via Getty Images

Monday marks the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Below is a transcript of his celebrated "I Have a Dream" voice communication, delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. NPR's Talk of the Nation aired the speech in 2010 — heed to that broadcast at the audio link above.

Martin Luther Male monarch Jr. and other ceremonious rights leaders gather before a rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington. National Archives/Hulton Annal via Getty Images hibernate explanation

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National Athenaeum/Hulton Annal via Getty Images

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Declaration. This momentous prescript came as a great beacon light of promise to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long dark of their captivity.

Only 100 years later, the Negro withal is non gratis. Ane hundred years later, the life of the Negro is nonetheless sadly bedridden by the manacles of segregation and the chains of bigotry. 1 hundred years after, the Negro lives on a lone island of poverty in the midst of a vast sea of textile prosperity. One hundred years afterwards the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. And so nosotros've come up here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's upper-case letter to cash a bank check.

When the architects of our democracy wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Annunciation of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This notation was a promise that all men — aye, Black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Information technology is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.

But nosotros refuse to believe that the banking concern of justice is bankrupt.

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And then nosotros've come to cash this check, a check that will requite us upon need the riches of liberty and the security of justice.

We take likewise come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to have the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Civil rights protesters march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. Kurt Severin/3 Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Kurt Severin/Iii Lions/Hulton Annal/Getty Images

At present is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to elevator our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid stone of brotherhood. At present is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a first. Those who promise that the Negro needed to accident off steam and will now exist content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

There volition be neither balance nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of defection volition continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the brilliant day of justice emerges.

Merely at that place is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not exist guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom past drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and subject field. Nosotros must not let our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and once more, we must rise to the imperial heights of meeting physical force with soul forcefulness. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced past their presence here today, take come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

And they accept come up to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, nosotros must make the pledge that nosotros shall always march alee. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of ceremonious rights, when will you exist satisfied? Nosotros tin can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We tin never exist 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.

We cannot exist satisfied as long equally the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never exist satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: for whites only.

We cannot exist satisfied as long every bit a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and nosotros will not be satisfied until justice rolls downwards like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you take come hither out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you take come up fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered past the winds of law brutality. Y'all have been the veterans of creative suffering. Go along to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Get back to Mississippi, become dorsum to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, become back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation tin and will be changed.

Let united states not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to y'all today, my friends.

So even though nosotros face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I however have a dream. It is a dream securely rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rising upwardly and live out the true meaning of its creed: We agree these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

People handclapping and sing forth to a freedom song betwixt speeches at the March on Washington for Jobs and Liberty in 1963. Express Newspapers via Getty Images hide explanation

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Express Newspapers via Getty Images

I have a dream that one solar day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of onetime slave owners will exist able to sit down down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one solar day even the country of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will exist transformed into an oasis of liberty and justice.

I have a dream that my four trivial children will ane day live in a nation where they volition not exist judged past the colour of their pare but by the content of their graphic symbol. I take a dream today.

I have a dream that one mean solar day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama picayune Black boys and Blackness girls volition exist able to bring together hands with niggling white boys and white girls every bit sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that ane day every valley shall be exalted, every colina and mountain shall be made depression, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will exist 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 Southward with. With this religion, we volition be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of promise. With this organized religion we volition exist 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 up for liberty together, knowing that we will be free one solar day.

This volition be the day when all of God'south 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 pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And if America is to be a great nation, this must go true. And so let liberty ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom band from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom band from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But non just that, let liberty ring from Rock Mountain of Georgia. Allow liberty ring from Lookout Mount of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom band.

And when this happens, and when we allow 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 upwards that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, volition be able to bring together hands and sing in the words of the quondam Negro spiritual: Free at final. Complimentary at last. Thank God almighty, nosotros are free at terminal.

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety

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