Monday marks Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Below is a transcript of his

celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial. NPR's Talk of the Nation aired the speech
in 2010 — listen to that broadcast at the audio link above.
Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders gather before a rally at the
Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington.
National Archives/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: 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.
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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 in 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.

CODE SWITCH
The Power Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Anger
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 which has come back marked insufficient funds.

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But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.
CODE SWITCH
Martin Luther King is not your mascot
We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults
of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a
check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the
security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce
urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or
to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. 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 lift our nation from the quick sands of
racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make
justice a reality for all of God's children.
Civil rights protesters march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln
Memorial for the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963.
Kurt Severin/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.
This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not
pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963
is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to
blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the
nation returns to business as usual.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is
granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to
shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice
emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the
warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of
gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let
us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of
bitterness and hatred.

THROUGHLINE
Bayard Rustin: The Man Behind the March on Washington (2021)
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. The marvelous new militancy
which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust
of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their
presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up
with our destiny.

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And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to
our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the
pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, when will
you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the
victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be
satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot
gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a

smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our
children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by
signs stating: for whites only.

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and

a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls
down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

POLITICS
How The Voting Rights Act Came To Be And How It's Changed
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials
and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells.
Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you
battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of
police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina,
go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and
ghettos of our Northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can
and will be changed.

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Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

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.

People clap and sing along to a freedom song between speeches at the March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
Express Newspapers via Getty Images
 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
down 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 my four 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 down 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 will be made plain, and the
crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

CODE SWITCH
Nikole Hannah-Jones on the power of collective
memory
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This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South 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 jangling discords
of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith
we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together,
to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we
will be free one day.

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 This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with
new meaning: My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I
sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every
mountainside, let freedom ring.

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so 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 heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from
the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the
curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom ring from
Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of
Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom 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.

CorrectionJan. 15, 2024

A previous version of this transcript included the line, "We have also come to his hallowed spot
to remind America of the fierce urgency of now." The correct wording is "We have also come to
this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now."
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