I Have A Dream (Speech)
Dr. Martin Luther King made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at a rally in
Washington on August 28, 1963. Over 200,000 people came to hear him speak, and
millions of other people heard the speech on television. The rally came at the end of a
civil rights march to Washington, which began in the South and ended on the steps of the
US Capitol. Ten months after this speech, the United States Congress passed the Civil
Rights Act, which banned racial discrimination in housing, voting, jobs, and education.
If you find some of the words in this speech unfamiliar to you, look on the last page
and see if the word is included in the "I Have a Dream" glossary.
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 captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that 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 an appalling 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 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 that 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 open the doors of
opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the
quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to
underestimate the determination of the Negro. 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 foundation of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
PROTEAM DREAMQUEST CURRICULUM
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