I have the pleasure to present to you dr. Martin Luther King I'm 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 100 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 100 years later the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty I have but one day this nation will rise up live out the true meaning of its Creed we always choose to be self-evident that all men are created I have a dream sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave on 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 be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice I have a dream my 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 agreed 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 little black boys and black girls will
be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls they're revealing mountain shall be made low the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made with this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair of soul 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 we'll 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 pilgrims pride from every mountainside let freedom ring and of America's to be a great nation this must become true so let's 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 on to that
let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee let freedom ring from every Hill 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
