1. Martin Luther King - I Have A DreamDr. Martin Luther King, Jr: “I Have A Dream”I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatestdemonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed theEmancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope tomillions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as ajoyous 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 theNegro 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 vastocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in thecorners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've comehere today to dramatize a shameful condition.In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of ourrepublic 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 apromise 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 thatAmerica 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, acheck which has come back marked "insufficient funds."But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that thereare insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come tocash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the securityof justice.We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. Thisis no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug ofgradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to risefrom the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is thetime to lift our nation from the quicksands 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 swelteringsummer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumnof freedom and equality. Nineteen sixtythreeis not an end, but a beginning. And those whohope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rudeawakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nortranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revoltwill 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 whichleads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not beguilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from thecup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane ofdignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physicalviolence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force withsoul force.The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to adistrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presencehere today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they havecome to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.We cannot walk alone.And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.