86: 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. 137 ✓
85: Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. 118 ✓
84: 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. 144 ✓
83: 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. 129 ✓
82: One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 135 ✓
81: One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. 123 ✓
80: One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. 133 ✓
79: And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. 63 ✓
78: 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 133 ✓
77: Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was 141 ✓
76: 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 142 ✓
75: Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead 139 ✓
74: of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." 140 ✓
73: But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. 62 ✓
72: We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. 105 ✓
71: 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. 127 ✓
70: We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. 87 ✓
69: This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. 103 ✓
68: Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. 55 ✓
67: Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. 110 ✓
66: Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. 108 ✓
65: Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. 68 ✓
64: It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent 131 ✓
63: will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. 129 ✓
62: 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 123 ✓
61: returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. 138 ✓
60: The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. 118 ✓
59: 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 142 ✓
58: 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 143 ✓
57: of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative 138 ✓
56: protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. 142 ✓
55: The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, 118 ✓
54: 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. 143 ✓
53: And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. 86 ✓
52: We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back. 118 ✓
51: There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" 90 ✓
50: 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 134 ✓
49: 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. 135 ✓
48: We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. 102 ✓
47: We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: 127 ✓
46: "For Whites Only." 18 ✓
45: 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. 135 ✓
44: No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream." 138 ✓
43: 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 144 ✓
42: 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 144 ✓
41: of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. 141 ✓
40: Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, 112 ✓
39: go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. 117 ✓
38: Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. 75 ✓
37: 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. 139 ✓
36: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 96 ✓
35: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." 74 ✓
34: I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, 56 ✓
33: the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. 124 ✓
32: I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, 58 ✓
31: a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. 144 ✓
30: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation 73 ✓
29: where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. 95 ✓
28: I have a dream today! 21 ✓
27: I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, 71 ✓
26: with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama 130 ✓
25: little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. 124 ✓
24: I have a dream today! 21 ✓
23: 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, 142 ✓
22: and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together." 128 ✓
21: This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. 73 ✓
20: 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 123 ✓
19: transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, 138 ✓
18: 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. 135 ✓
17: 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: 114 ✓
16: My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. 63 ✓
15: Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring! 100 ✓
14: 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. 134 ✓
13: Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. 55 ✓
12: Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. 66 ✓
11: Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. 58 ✓
10: Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. 58 ✓
9: But not only that: 18 ✓
8: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. 48 ✓
7: Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. 52 ✓
6: Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. 61 ✓
5: From every mountainside, let freedom ring. 42 ✓
4: And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, 111 ✓
3: 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, 122 ✓
2: Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: 122 ✓
1: Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! 69 ✓