"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring -- 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: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
And today the bells did ring. Not for freedom, because we have not achieved that yet, but for the man who had the courage to stand up and say that a man should not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.
His voice rang out to those who stood in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial and across the National Mall to the steps of the Capitol itself. He spoke of Mr. Lincoln with a timbre and a resonance and a cadence that fired the conscience of a nation. He reminded us that the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation was a promissory note, and that five score years later, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
He spoke these words in 1963, a time when lynchings were a way of life. When police brutality with clubs and boots and fire hoses and attack dogs was an every day occurrence. When in many states blacks could not vote or had to pay a "poll tax" to exercise their rights. A time when people of color could not gain lodgings in the motels along our highways. A time when segregation lived more in the hearts of men than in the streets of our cities.
President John F. Kennedy was so worried about what King might say, or the reaction of the crowd, that he had a Secret Service agent positioned by the podium ready to literally pull the plug.
Instead, Dr. King called those in attendance the veterans of creative suffering. He spoke in parables and metaphors, invoking scripture, the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, the Constitution, and lines from "My Country Tis of Thee."
He admonished the gathering that "we can never be satisfied" until justice and freedom were the law of the land. The deep spirituality and rousing patriotism of the 17 minute sermon appealed to the mind of reason, inflamed the heart of brotherhood, and sent soaring the soul of righteousness.
To watch the speech in full (and every American should), please visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs
U2's tribute to "MLK" can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDH7oD_AQW8
No comments:
Post a Comment