ENGLISH SPEECH MARTIN LUTHER KING I Have a Dream English Subtitles
I 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 beckoning
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 one hundred years later the Negro is still
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
languishing in the comers of American society
and finds himself in exile in his own land.
We all have come to this hallowed spot to
remind America of the fierce urgency of now.
Now is the time to rise from the dark and
desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit
path of racial justice.
Now is the time to change racial injustice
to the solid rock of brotherhood.
Now is the time to make justice ring out for
all of God’s children.
There will be neither rest nor tranquility
in America until the Negro is granted citizenship
rights.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the
high plane of dignity and discipline.
We must not allow our creative protest to
degenerate into physical violence.
Again and again we must rise to the majestic
heights of meeting physical force with soul
force.
And the marvelous new militarism which has
engulfed the Negro community must not lead
us to a distrust of all white people, for
many of our white brothers have evidenced
by their presence here today that they have
come to realize that their destiny is part
of our destiny.
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 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 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, every hill and mountain shall
be made low, the rough places plains, and
the crooked places will be made straight,
and before the Lord will be revealed, and
all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope.
This is the faith that I go back to the mount
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 genuine discords of our nation into a
beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together,
pray together; to struggle together, to go
to jail together, to stand up for freedom
forever, )mowing that we will be free one
day.
And I say to you today my friends, 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 mighty Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snow capped Rockies
of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes
of California!
But not only there; let freedom ring from
the Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain in
Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill
in Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom
to ring, when we let it ring from every village
and 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, “Free at
last!
Free at last!
Thank God almighty, we’re free at last!”