I Have a Dream

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: 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 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 snowcapped 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, and when

We allow freedom ring, and 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