straightUp Loc: California

Happy MLK Day ya'all!

I just thought I'd put aside the squabbling for a moment to share the text of that famous speech by that great American figure that we honor with this day.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

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. 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 slopes 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 molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to 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!”

Lt. Rob Polans ret.

I like it, don't know about his niece though.

Rose42

straightUp Loc: California

lol - I don't know about his niece either... I mean literally... I didn't even know he had one. Not sure it matters either. I know about King. I can hear his voice in my head as I read the speech. One of my favorite lines...

"We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline."

I hope these words don't get lost in the fury created by a media industry competing for our attention.

padremike Loc: Phenix City, Al

Was MLK a great man? I believe he was! Was MLK a flawed man? Unquestionably. He was an ordained minister who was unscrupulously a serial womanizer. The night before his assassination was spent in the fatal motel with a woman not his wife. His PhD thesis was plagiarize. In spite of his humanity, his flaws, is that what we remember about him? No! The Leftist hated him then. The Right stood with him. Today there is President Trump. The Left hates him too. He's flawed. So am i. So are we all.

straightUp Loc: California

Yeah... I'm going to disagree with your bit about Leftists hating him and the Right standing by him. That really makes no sense to me at all. I think people get a little confused between their "left and right" and the juxtaposition that spectrum always crosses with other spectrums like "liberal vs conservative" and "Republican vs Democrat". None of these spectrums are the same, nor are they historically tied to each other.

Political parties are instrumental platforms of compromise and leverage and as such they can shift positions in much the same way the government can, it just depends on who is driving. There is no real anchoring to ideology as many people seem to think and a political party can drift in any direction at all.

Conservative vs Liberal is a little more rooted to the ideas of tradition, where conservatives fight to preserve tradition (or the status quo) and liberals fight to "liberate" themselves from it.

Left vs Right is probably the most nebulous of all these spectrums but despite the ambiguity a number of concepts have stood the test of time, such as the fact that every leftward movement since the French Revolution has always fought for an open society while every rightward movement has always fought for a closed society. We see this today with those on the right demanding we build a wall and accusing the left of wanting open borders. We saw it in Nazi Germany when the right wanted to exclude Jews and Gypsies from their society, in fact Hitler hated communists BECAUSE they pursued an international (inclusive) agenda that he saw as a threat to his (exclusive) nationalism.

MLK came at an interesting juxtaposition when the Democratic party, which was the conservative party for decades was starting to warm up to leftist (inclusive) ideas such as LBJ's "Great Society" and many of those conservatives, especially in the South, left the party and ended the era of the Democratic South. They called them "Dixiecrats". In the years that followed, people like Nixon and Goldwater completed the transition by inviting the disenfranchised Dixiecrats to the Republican Party thereby creating the "New Republican Party". Meanwhile a lot of liberals previously in the Republican party jumped over to the Democratic Party. It doesn't happen often but our political parties actually have switched sides on several spectrums on several occasions.

So, getting back to your point. Those people who "hated" MLK were tied to the RIGHT by virtue of the fact that they didn't want the open their society to black folks. Many of them were probably Democrats because the transition was only starting to happen and most conservatives interested in preserving the status quo (blacks at the back of the bus) were still in that party.

So did Democrats hate MLK? Yes, many of them did. Were they leftists? No... not even close.

Louis

Your dead wrong about the “right” being the ones who hated MLK. Don’t try to make it look like the people on the right were racist and leave the impression that they were supporters of the Ku Klux Klan, because that is simply not true. Those were the cigar smoking, good ole boy democrats like Huey Long and George Wallace. The Republicans were always the party of civil rights and they were never lefties, so don’t try to turn the tables on them and say they “used to be” the lefties, but they switched sides years ago, because that’s just flat out wrong.

straightUp Loc: California

Well, you can disagree all you like but it doesn't change the truth.


That is absolutely true. I know this issue drives conservatives up the wall but racism is a form of exclusion and as such is has always been associated with the right. Your confusion comes from an inability to separate "left and right" from "Democrat and Republican". I've seen this a hundred times.

If you're up for a little reading check this out... http://factmyth.com/factoids/democrats-and-republicans-switched-platforms/ You probably won't agree with it but at least it explains things so you know I'm not just pulling this out of my a-s. If you happen to find fault in the assessment let me know.


No it's true, but your denial is awesome! ;)

Louis

You can quote all the left wing sites all you want, but that doesn’t make you or the phony site your quoting correct. It might make you feel better about yourself or your cause or the people you associate with, but your still wrong. Don’t call the republicans racists because they are not.

Your denial is laughable.

straightUp Loc: California

You apparently don't understand what I am saying... I never said "Republicans are racist". I said racism is a form of exclusion which puts it on the right of the ideological spectrum. That doesn't mean that ALL people on the right are racist it just means that racists gravitate toward the right. On the left they are repelled for obvious reasons... (well, obvious to some). This doesn't mean Republicans are racist either, because like I said political parties are not tied to ideology, they are basically political platforms for hire.

It can be said that the GOP today provides more political leverage for rightward agendas which may explain the tendency to blur the politics and the ideology into one, but that can change tomorrow.

I'm not affiliated with any party because I don't do identity politics. I tend however to side more with the Democrats on most current issues. But if I were alive in 1920 I would most likely side with the Republicans because in those days they catered to people like me. Today they don't.

I'm not sure why this is so hard for people to understand unless they're really caught up in identity politics. Don't do it. Free yourself from the stupidity of identity politics. Define yourself by who you are not by the political party you register with. Be your own man. Do that and it will be much easier to see things objectively.

Louis

I’m sorry, I just don’t buy into your argument, and by the way, I am my own man, thank you very much, just because I don’t agree with you doesn’t mean I’m not capable of thinking for myself.

straightUp Loc: California

Aw, you know I was having fun at the end there... Look, I respect your right to disagree and I never suggested you weren't capable of thinking for yourself. Everyone is capable of thinking for themselves. I was only pointing out that some cultures discourage it.

Louis

I know. I’m glad you posted that speech. Martin Luther King was a great man by any measure. A lot of people have heard about it, but have never heard the speech or read it. I was very young. It was in 1963 if I remember correctly. I remember well the night he was assassinated, I was in fifth grade and the next morning we all surrounded our teachers desk and bombarded him with question after question. We couldn’t understand why someone hated him so much that he would kill him just because he was black.

1968 was a very difficult for me as an 11 year old, to try to understand what was going on in our country with the assassination of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy and the race riots going on across the country with the burning of buildings and businesses. It was a lot to absorb for a little kid. Thank God times have changed.

But anyway reading that speech brought back some memories, mostly what a great and good man MLK was and how peaceful ways should rule the day. Thank you!

promilitary

The only problem I have with MLK is that much of his writings, etc, were plagiarized.

The one question I have about MLK Day is WHY did we do away with
celebrating Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays along the way? Yeah I know, we dumped them
all together but MLK still gets his own day. Just asking.

Louis

I agree we shouldn’t have done away with Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays, however that shouldn’t take away from The specialness of Martin Luther King’s day. There is enough room for all three.

As far as some of MLK’s words being plagiarized, so be it. The words he used were effective, albeit not always his own, and he was an effective, as well as a peaceful leader, unlike Malcom X and other proponents of violence back in the day. Many of our greatest leaders were flawed in one way or another, but nevertheless were special people. He always took the high road and should be respected for that.