Happy Martin Luther King Day! (Page 2): :sm24:...

straightUp Loc: California

Louis wrote:

I know. I’m glad you posted that speech. Martin Lu... (show quote)

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

straightUp wrote:

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!”

Happy MLK Day ya'all! br br I just thought I'd pu... (show quote)

👍👍 A truly inspiring visionary he was...

straightUp Loc: California

promilitary wrote:

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

Fact checkers are calling that a false statement, with the one noted exception being the dissertation for his Ph.D. in theology from Boston University. Decades after his assassination, the school realized that in that specific paper he borrowed heavily from other sources, verbatim without the appropriate acknowledgements. There are no indications that any of his other stuff was plagiarized, but there were plenty of efforts by haters to convince people otherwise, which isn't surprising seeing how he was hated enough to be killed.

promilitary wrote:

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.

The answer is Ronald Reagan. He decided to replace Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday with President's Day. MLK, not being a president wasn't affected.

I remember this well because I voted for Reagan. It was my first vote as a citizen and President's Day was established right about the time I started to develop remorse (mostly because of his cabinet). I remember thinking how conceited it was for a president to replace two holidays celebrating Lincoln and Washington with one day to celebrate presidents in general, including himself. (I was 19 or 20 at the time and not as jaded as I am now - lol) I never thought I would say this but I would be ecstatic to see Reagan back in the Oval Office today.

straightUp Loc: California

Louis wrote:

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.

If I remember right, one of the reasons Reagan provided for the change was to reduce the number of holidays on the calendar by replacing two days dedicated to specific presidents with one day for all of them. It fit right into Reagan's whole "get back to work" motif, which I admit was one reason I voted for him.

Louis wrote:

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.

King's push for non-violence was truly remarkable, but I think we also have to give some credit to men like JFK and LBJ for being receptive to non-violent approaches. People are willing to suspend violence when they see other approaches being taken seriously. MLK was essentially telling black folks that white folks in power are willing to listen and some of them were... JFK initiated the Civil Rights Act then got assassinated before he could sign it into law. LBJ picked up where JFK left off and signed the bill into law in 1964.

Louis

straightUp wrote:

King's push for non-violence was truly remarkable,... (show quote)

I remember like it was yesterday when JFK got assassinated, even though I was only in first grade. I’m not a Democrat, but I often wonder what he could have accomplished if his life hadn’t been cut short and he had been able to serve the country for two terms. In my opinion JFK was the last truly great democrat to serve as President, not to say that every republican that followed him was a great President.