Martin Luther King, Jr
Martin Luther King, Jr. was clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the American civil right movement.
He was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia and he was killed on April 4, 1968,
in a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. His killer was James Earl Ray, a
white segregationist.
The most famous speach of Martin Luther King is
“I have a dream”. He delivered it in the March on Washington in 1963 (in the Lincoln Memorial).
« I say to you today, my
friends, 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 a 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 down 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, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. »
Lincoln Memorial
