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

score years ago, a great , in whose symbolic shadow we stand , signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous came as a great beacon light hope to millions of Negro slaves, had been seared in the flames withering injustice. It came as a daybreak to end the long night their captivity.

But one years later, the Negro still is free. One hundred years later, the of the Negro is still sadly by the manacles of segregation and chains of discrimination. One hundred years , the Negro lives on a lonely of poverty in the midst of vast ocean of material prosperity. One years later, the Negro is still in the corners of American society finds himself an exile in his land.

And so we've come today to dramatize a shameful condition. a sense we have come to nation's capital to cash a cheque. the architects of our republic wrote magnificent words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, they were signing promissory note to which every American to fall heir. This note was promise that all men - yes, men as well as white men - be guaranteed the inalienable rights life, liberty, and the pursuit of .

It is obvious today that has defaulted on this promissory note, as her citizens of colour are . Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, has given the Negro people a cheque, a cheque which has come marked "insufficient funds."

But refuse to believe that the bank justice is bankrupt. We refuse to that there are insufficient funds in great vaults of opportunity of this . And so we have come to this cheque, a cheque that will us upon demand the riches of and the security of justice.

have also come to this spot to remind America of the urgency of now. This is no to engage in the luxury of off or to take the tranquilizing of gradualism. Now is the time make real the promises of democracy. is the time to rise from dark and desolate valley of segregation the sunlit path of racial justice. is the time to lift our from the quicksands of racial injustice the solid rock of brotherhood. Now the time to make justice a for all of God's children.
It be fatal for the nation to the urgency of the moment. This summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent not pass until there is an autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen is not an end but a . Those who hope that the Negro to blow off steam and will be content will have a rude if the nation returns to business usual. There will be neither rest tranquillity in America until the Negro granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds revolt will continue to shake the of our nation until the bright of justice emerges.

But there something that I must say to people who stand on the warm which leads into the palace of . In the process of gaining our place we must not be guilty wrongful deeds. Let us not seek satisfy our thirst for freedom by from the cup of bitterness and . We must ever conduct our struggle the high plane of dignity and . We must not allow our creative to degenerate into physical violence. Again again we must rise to the heights of meeting physical force with force.

The marvellous new militancy has engulfed the Negro community must lead us to a distrust of white people, for many of our brothers, as evidenced by their presence today, have come to realize that destiny is tied up with our . And they have come to realize their freedom is inextricably bound to freedom. We cannot walk alone. And we walk, we must make the that we shall always march ahead. cannot turn back. There are those are asking the devotees of civil , "When will you be satisfied?" We never be satisfied as long as Negro is the victim of the horrors of police brutality. We can be satisfied as long as our , heavy with the fatigue of travel, gain lodging in the motels of highways and the hotels of the . We cannot be satisfied as long a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote a Negro in New York believes has nothing for which to vote. , no, we are not satisfied and will not be satisfied until justice down like waters and righteousness like mighty stream.

I am not that some of you have come out of great trials and tribulations. of you have come fresh from jail cells. Some of you have from areas where your quest for left you battered by the storms persecutions and staggered by the winds police brutality. You have been the of creative suffering. Continue to work the faith that unearned suffering is . Go back to Mississippi, go back Alabama, go back to South Carolina, back to Georgia, go back to , go back to the slums and of our northern cities, knowing that this situation can and will be . Let us not wallow in the of despair, I say to you , my friends. And so even though face the difficulties of today and , I still have a dream. It a dream deeply rooted in the dream.

I have a that one day this nation will up and live out the true of its creed: "We hold these to be self-evident that all men created equal."

I have a that one day on the red of Georgia the sons of former and the sons of former slave will be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood.

have a dream that one day the state of Mississippi, a state with the heat of injustice, sweltering the heat of oppression, will be into an oasis of freedom and .

I have a dream that four little children will one day in a nation where they will be judged by the colour of skin but by the content of character.

I have a dream .

I have a dream that day, down in Alabama, with its racists, with its governor having his dripping with the words of interposition nullification; one day right down in little black boys and black girls be able to join hands with white boys and white girls as and brothers.

I have a today.

I have a dream one day every valley shall be , and every hill and mountain shall made low, the rough places will made plain, and the crooked places be made straight, and the glory the Lord shall be revealed and flesh shall see it together.

is our hope. This is the that I will go back to south with. With this faith we be able to hew out of mountain of despair a stone of . With this faith we will be to transform the jangling discords of nation into a beautiful symphony of . With this faith we will be to work together, to pray together, struggle together, to go to jail , to stand up for freedom together, that we will be free one . And this will be the day, will be the day when all God's children will be able to with new meaning, "My country 'tis thee, sweet land of liberty, of I sing. Land where my fathers , land of the Pilgrim's pride, from mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if is to be a great nation, must become true.

And so freedom ring - from the prodigious of New Hampshire. Let freedom - from the mighty mountains of New . Let freedom ring - from the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom - from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. freedom ring - from the curvaceous of California. But not only that. freedom ring - from Stone Mountain Georgia. Let freedom ring - from Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of , from every mountainside.

Let freedom . And when this happens, when we freedom to ring, when we let ring from every village and every , from every state and every city, will be able to speed up day when all of God's children, men and white men, Jews and , Protestants and Catholics, will be able join hands and sing in the of the old Negro spiritual, "Free last, free at last. Thank Almighty, we are free at last.