KING'S "I HAVE A DREAM" SPEECH - AUG. 28,1963 I am happy to join with you today in what will godown in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom inthe history of our nation. Five score years ago, a greatAmerican, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today,signed the Emancipation Proclaimation. This momentousdecree came as a great beacon of hope to millions of slaves,who had been seared in the flames of whithering injustice. Itcame as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of theircaptivity. But one hundered years later, the colored Americais still not free. One hundred years later, the life of thecolored American is still sadly crippled by the manacle ofsegregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundredyears later, the colored American lives on a lonely island ofpoverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.One hundred years later, the colored American is stilllanguishing in the corners of American society and findshimself an exile in his own land So we have come here todayto dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we have cometo our Nation's Capital to cash a check. When the architectsof our great republic wrote the magnificent words of theConstitution and the Declaration of Independence, they weresigning a promissory note to which every Anerican was tofall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, blackmen as well as white men, would be guaranteed to theinalienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Itis obvious today that America has defaulted on thispromissory note insofar as her citizens of color areconcerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation,America has given its colored people a bad check, a checkthat has come back marked "insufficient funds." But werefuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. Werefuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the greatvaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come tocash this check, a check that will give ...
