Martin Luther King Jr. Speech: I have a Dream
Excerpt from Heart Intelligence - Book 2 - Powerful Social Intelligence
about Martin Luther King Jr.:
Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. Graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1944 and was admitted to Morehouse College at age 15. Graduates from Morehouse College in 1948 and enters Crozer Theological Seminary. Ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1948, at age 19. Enters Boston University for graduate studies in 1951. Married Coretta Scott in 1953 and settles in Montgomery, Alabama. Received Doctorate of Philosophy in 1955 in Systematic Theology from Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. The title of his dissertation is “A Comparison of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Wiseman”.
After Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1 he joins the bus boycott. He becomes the official spokesman for the boycott on December 5 and is elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. On November 13, 1956 the Supreme Court rules that bus segregation is illegal, ensuring victory for the boycott. On May 17, 1957 King speaks to a crowd of 15,000 in Washington, D.C. and forms the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to achieve civil rights. In 1958 King's first book, Stride Toward Freedom, is published and the U.S. Congress has passed the first Civil Rights Act since reconstruction. While at a rally in Harlem King is nearly killed by a stab wound. He with President Eisenhower on problems affecting black Americans.
In 1959, he visited India to study Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence. Upon his return, he resigns from pastoring the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to concentrate on civil rights. Set up in Atlanta to direct the activities of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1960 becomes co-pastor with his father at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. King is arrested during a sit-in waiting to be served at a restaurant. He is sentenced to four months in prison, but is soon released after intervention by John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is founded to coordinate protests at Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina.
In November, 1961 the Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation in interstate travel due to work of King and the Freedom Riders. After the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in interstate transportation, Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) began first Freedom Ride through the South, in a Greyhound bus. During the unsuccessful Albany, Georgia movement, King is arrested on July 27, 1962 and put in prison. On Good Friday, April 12, 1963 King is arrested with Ralph Abernathy for demonstrating without a permit by Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor. On April 13, 1963 the Birmingham campaign is launched. This would prove to be the turning point in the struggle to end segregation in the South. King writes his famous Letter during the eleven days he spent in Birmingham Jail. On May 10, 1963 the charges are dropped and the Birmingham agreement is announced. The restaurants, stores and schools will be desegregated, hiring of blacks will be implemented. On June 23, 1963 in Detroit King leads 125,000 people on a Freedom Walk. With nearly 250,000 people in attendance the march on Washington held August 28, 1963 is the largest civil rights demonstration in history. King makes his famous I Have a Dream speech at the march. President Kennedy is assassinated on November 22, 1963. On January 3, 1964 King appears on the cover of Time Magazine as Time Magazines Man of the Year. On July 2, 1964 King attends the signing ceremony of the Civil Rights Act at the White House. King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1964, and at age 35 he becomes the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Peace. During a voting rights demonstration on February 2, 1965 King is arrested in Selma, Alabama. King turns to socioeconomic problems after President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law. To focus attention on the living conditions of the poor on January 22, 1965 King moves into a Chicago slum’s. Against Fear through the South in June, 1965 King and others begin the March. King launches a campaign to end discrimination in schools, housing, and employment in Chicago. The Supreme Court upholds a conviction of King by a Birmingham court in 1967 for demonstrating without a permit. Subsequently King spends four days in Birmingham prison. King declared on November 27, 1967 the inception of the Poor People's Campaign focusing on job discrimination and freedom for the poor of all races. In 1968 King declares that the Poor People's Campaign will culminate in a procession in Washington demanding a $12 billion Economic Bill of Rights guaranteeing employment to the able-bodied, incomes to those unable to work, and an end to housing discrimination. He further marches in support of sanitation workers on strike in Memphis, Tennessee. Following this he delivered the speech “I've Been to the Mountaintop”.
At sunset on April 4, 1968, King is fatally wounded by a gunshot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. His death is followed by riots and disturbances in 130 American cities. Twenty thousand arrests are made. King's funeral on April 9, 1968 is an international event. Within a week of the assassination, the Open Housing Act is passed by Congress. On November 2, 1986 a national holiday is proclaimed in King's honour.
After Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1 he joins the bus boycott. He becomes the official spokesman for the boycott on December 5 and is elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. On November 13, 1956 the Supreme Court rules that bus segregation is illegal, ensuring victory for the boycott. On May 17, 1957 King speaks to a crowd of 15,000 in Washington, D.C. and forms the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to achieve civil rights. In 1958 King's first book, Stride Toward Freedom, is published and the U.S. Congress has passed the first Civil Rights Act since reconstruction. While at a rally in Harlem King is nearly killed by a stab wound. He with President Eisenhower on problems affecting black Americans.
In 1959, he visited India to study Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence. Upon his return, he resigns from pastoring the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to concentrate on civil rights. Set up in Atlanta to direct the activities of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1960 becomes co-pastor with his father at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. King is arrested during a sit-in waiting to be served at a restaurant. He is sentenced to four months in prison, but is soon released after intervention by John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is founded to coordinate protests at Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina.
In November, 1961 the Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation in interstate travel due to work of King and the Freedom Riders. After the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in interstate transportation, Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) began first Freedom Ride through the South, in a Greyhound bus. During the unsuccessful Albany, Georgia movement, King is arrested on July 27, 1962 and put in prison. On Good Friday, April 12, 1963 King is arrested with Ralph Abernathy for demonstrating without a permit by Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor. On April 13, 1963 the Birmingham campaign is launched. This would prove to be the turning point in the struggle to end segregation in the South. King writes his famous Letter during the eleven days he spent in Birmingham Jail. On May 10, 1963 the charges are dropped and the Birmingham agreement is announced. The restaurants, stores and schools will be desegregated, hiring of blacks will be implemented. On June 23, 1963 in Detroit King leads 125,000 people on a Freedom Walk. With nearly 250,000 people in attendance the march on Washington held August 28, 1963 is the largest civil rights demonstration in history. King makes his famous I Have a Dream speech at the march. President Kennedy is assassinated on November 22, 1963. On January 3, 1964 King appears on the cover of Time Magazine as Time Magazines Man of the Year. On July 2, 1964 King attends the signing ceremony of the Civil Rights Act at the White House. King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1964, and at age 35 he becomes the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Peace. During a voting rights demonstration on February 2, 1965 King is arrested in Selma, Alabama. King turns to socioeconomic problems after President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law. To focus attention on the living conditions of the poor on January 22, 1965 King moves into a Chicago slum’s. Against Fear through the South in June, 1965 King and others begin the March. King launches a campaign to end discrimination in schools, housing, and employment in Chicago. The Supreme Court upholds a conviction of King by a Birmingham court in 1967 for demonstrating without a permit. Subsequently King spends four days in Birmingham prison. King declared on November 27, 1967 the inception of the Poor People's Campaign focusing on job discrimination and freedom for the poor of all races. In 1968 King declares that the Poor People's Campaign will culminate in a procession in Washington demanding a $12 billion Economic Bill of Rights guaranteeing employment to the able-bodied, incomes to those unable to work, and an end to housing discrimination. He further marches in support of sanitation workers on strike in Memphis, Tennessee. Following this he delivered the speech “I've Been to the Mountaintop”.
At sunset on April 4, 1968, King is fatally wounded by a gunshot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. His death is followed by riots and disturbances in 130 American cities. Twenty thousand arrests are made. King's funeral on April 9, 1968 is an international event. Within a week of the assassination, the Open Housing Act is passed by Congress. On November 2, 1986 a national holiday is proclaimed in King's honour.
Selected Quotes by Martin Luther King:
“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to
see the whole staircase,
just take the first step.”
“I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him
is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience
of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.”
“Seeing is not always believing.”
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin,
but by the content of their character.”
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor;
it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defence
than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
“Life's most urgent question is:
what are you doing for others?”
“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon
which cuts without wounding
and ennobles the man who wields it.
It is a sword that heals.”
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.
He who is devoid of the power to
forgive is devoid of the power to love.
There is some good in the worst
of us and some evil in the best of us.
When we discover this,
we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
“Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else?
The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken,
or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
“I have decided to stick with love.
Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words
and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
The time is always right to do what is right.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to
see the whole staircase,
just take the first step.”
“I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him
is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience
of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.”
“Seeing is not always believing.”
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin,
but by the content of their character.”
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor;
it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defence
than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
“Life's most urgent question is:
what are you doing for others?”
“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon
which cuts without wounding
and ennobles the man who wields it.
It is a sword that heals.”
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.
He who is devoid of the power to
forgive is devoid of the power to love.
There is some good in the worst
of us and some evil in the best of us.
When we discover this,
we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
“Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else?
The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken,
or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
“I have decided to stick with love.
Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words
and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
The time is always right to do what is right.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
