"Five score years ago, a great American, in

whose  symbolic shadow we stand today,

signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This

momentous  decree  came  as  a  great  beacon

light of hope 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 night of their captivity.

​

But one hundred years later, the Negro still

is not free. One hundred years later, the life of

the Negro is still sadly crippled by the

manacles of segregation and the chains of

discrimination. One hundred years later,

the Negro lives on a lonely island of

poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of

material prosperity. One hundred years later,

​

the Negro is still languishing in the corners of

American society and finds himself an exile in

his own land. So we have come here today to

dramatize a shameful condition.

​

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital

to cash a check. When the architects of

our republic wrote the magnificent words 

of the Constitution

and the

Declaration of Independence,

they were signing a promissory note to which

every American was to fall heir.

​

This note was a promise that all men, yes,

black men as well as white men,

would be

guaranteed the unalienable

rights of life,

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

​

It 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 we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is

bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are

insufficient funds in the great vaults of

opportunity of this nation. So we

have come to cash this check —

a check that will give us upon demand the

riches of freedom and the security of justice.

​

We have also come to this 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 take the tranquilizing drug of

gradualism. Now 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 lift our nation from

the quick sands of racial injustice to the

solid rock of brotherhood. Now 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.

​

Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a

beginning. Those who hope that the

Negro needed to blow off steam and will

now be content will have a rude awakening

if the nation returns to business as usual.

​

There will be neither rest nor tranquility

in America until the Negro is granted

his citizenship rights.

​

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue

to shake the foundations of our nation until

the bright day of justice emerges. But there

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 be guilty of wrongful deeds.

 

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by

drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

​

We must 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

force with soul force. 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 by

their presence here today, have

come to realize that their

destiny is tied up with our destiny.

​

They have come to realize that their

freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

​

As we walk, we must make the pledge that

we shall always march ahead. We cannot

turn back. There are those who are

asking the devotees of civil rights,

"When will you be satisfied?"

​

We can never be satisfied as long as

the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable

horrors of police brutality. We can 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.

​

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's

basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger

one. We can never be satisfied as long as our

children are stripped of their selfhood and

robbed of their dignity

by signs stating "For Whites Only".

​

We cannot be satisfied as long as 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 we

will not be satisfied until justice rolls

down like waters and

righteousness like a mighty stream.

​

I am not unmindful that some of you have

come here out of great trials and tribulations.

 

Some of you have come 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 by

the winds of police brutality.

​

You have been the veterans of creative suffering.

Continue to work with the faith that unearned

suffering is redemptive.

​

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama,

go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia,

go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums

and ghettos of our northern cities,

knowing that somehow this

situation can and will be changed.

​

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though

we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow,

​

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 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 today.

​

I have a dream that one 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 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 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 a 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

mountainside, let freedom ring."

​

And if America is to be a great nation

this must become true.