Forty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an oration on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and ended up making history. The words the civil-rights leader spoke that day continue to touch the minds and hearts of good people around the world who share his dream of a planet free from bigotry, of a day where we are judged by nothing more than the content of our character. Listen to his fiery oration. Read and internalize the words that he spoke so passionately and eloquently:
Address to civil rights marchers by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28, 1963I 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.
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. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
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 Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was 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 happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked "insufficient funds."
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Beautiful and very beautifully presented Natalie, thanks.
2 - Joe
Thanks, Natalie, for reminding us of more important things than our own petty squabbles.
3 - Natalie Davis
I would disagree respectfully, Joe. Judging people by their character rather than by putting them into societal categorizations and such is very much at the heart of many of the "squabbles" taking place, for example, on Blogcritics right now. I see nothing petty about that argument.
4 - Eric Olsen
Natalie, One of the things I most admire about you is your refusal to be categorized, either when it would be to your disadvantage or to your advantage, and surely this is what society should strive for. But in the meantime, there are some things that cannot even be discussed without referring to categories because that is the linguistic convention. You can fight it case by case, but it seems rather pointless to get upset about it in general - typically people mean nothing untoward by it at all, they are merely partaking of the social convention.
5 - Joe
True. Perhaps, the argument isn't what's petty, it's the way we talk around each other that is.
6 - Natalie Davis
When one finds the social convention abhorrent and immoral, one must work against it. That is something I learned from Dr. King.