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By Akindman,
Dr. Martin Luther King Day is a federal holiday held on the
third Monday of January. It celebrates the life and achievements of Martin
Luther King Jr., an influential American civil rights leader. He is most well-known
for his campaigns to end racial segregation on public transport and for racial
equality in the United States.
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He was a leader in the movement to end racial segregation
in the United States. His most famous address was the "I Have a
Dream" speech. He was an advocate of non-violent protest and became the
youngest man to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated in 1968.
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"The Stone Of Hope" memorial by master sculptor Lei Yixin was opened to the public in West Potomac Park, Washington DC, on August 22, 2011. ©iStockphoto.com/Camrocker
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I
have listened to Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech several times over the
years and again last night while writing this article. I hope you will take a few minutes to listen.
Thank you.
Martin Luther King's Address at March on Washington
August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.
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 languished in the corners of American society and finds himself
an exile in his own land. And so we've come here 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 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. And so, we've 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 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 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. And
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. And
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. And
they have come 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.
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 self-hood 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. And some of you have come from areas where your quest
-- 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.
And 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, and 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, and 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.
And this will be the day -- this will be
the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with 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.
And 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 snow-capped
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 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!
While researching and preparing this article I was engaged in a lengthy chat session with a good online friend on the merits of this being a federal holiday.
So our beloved readers – we are wondering what is your opinion of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being a federal holiday?
