Martin Luther King

One of the most visible advocates of nonviolence and direct action as methods of social change, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta on 15 January 1929. As the grandson of the Rev. A.D. Williams, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church and a founder of Atlanta's NAACP chapter, and the son of Martin Luther King, Sr., who succeeded Williams as Ebenezer's pastor, King's roots were in the African-American Baptist church. After attending Morehouse College in Atlanta, King went on to study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and Boston University, where he deepened his understanding of theological scholarship and explored Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent strategy for social change. King married Coretta Scott in 1953, and the following year he accepted the pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. King received his Ph.D. in systematic theology in 1955.

On 5 December 1955, after civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to comply with Montgomery's segregation policy on buses, black residents launched a bus boycott and elected King president of the newly-formed Montgomery Improvement Association. The boycott continued throughout 1956 and King gained national prominence for his role in the campaign. In December 1956 the United States Supreme Court declared Alabama's segregation laws unconstitutional and Montgomery buses were desegregated.

Seeking to build upon the success in Montgomery, King and other southern black ministers founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. In 1959, King toured India and further developed his understanding of Gandhian nonviolent strategies. Later that year, King resigned from Dexter and returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father.

In 1960, black college students initiated a wave of sit-in protests that led to the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). King supported the student movement and expressed an interest in creating a youth arm of the SCLC. Student activists admired King, but they were critical of his top-down leadership style and were determined to maintain their autonomy. As an advisor to SNCC, Ella Baker, who had previously served as associate director of SCLC, made clear to representatives from other civil rights organizations that SNCC was to remain a student-led organization. The 1961 "Freedom Rides" heightened tensions between King and younger activists, as he faced criticism for his decision not to participate in the rides. Conflicts between SCLC and SNCC continued during the Albany Movement of 1961 and 1962.

In the spring of 1963, King and SCLC lead mass demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, where local white police officials were known for their violent opposition to integration. Clashes between unarmed black demonstrators and police armed with dogs and fire hoses generated newspaper headlines throughout the world. President Kennedy responded to the Birmingham protests by submitting broad civil rights legislation to Congress, which led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Subsequent mass demonstrations culminated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on 28 August 1963, in which more than 250,000 protesters gathered in Washington, D. C. It was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

King's renown continued to grow as he became Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1963 and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. However, along with the fame and accolades came conflict within the movement's leadership. Malcom X's message of self-defense and black nationalism resonated with northern, urban blacks more effectively than King's call for nonviolence; King also faced public criticism from "Black Power" proponent, Stokely Carmichael.

King's efficacy was not only hindered by divisions among black leadership, but also by the increasing resistance he encountered from national political leaders. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's extensive efforts to undermine King's leadership were intensified during 1967 as urban racial violence escalated, and King's public criticism of U.S. intervention in the Vietnam War led to strained relations with Lyndon Johnson's administration.

In late 1967, King initiated a Poor People's Campaign designed to confront economic problems that had not been addressed by earlier civil rights reforms. The following year, while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, he delivered his final address "I've Been to the Mountaintop." The next day, 4 April 1968, King was assassinated.

To this day, King remains a controversial symbol of the African American civil rights struggle, revered by many for his martyrdom on behalf of nonviolence and condemned by others for his militancy and insurgent views.

Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in Stride Toward Freedom, his 1959 memoir of the Montgomery bus boycott, that "Living through the actual experience of the [Montgomery] protest, nonviolence became more than a method to which I gave intellectual assent; it became a commitment to a way of life." King was not, however, always committed to the doctrine of nonviolence. Prior to the Montgomery bus boycott and his complete conversion to a philosophy of nonviolence of love, King employed armed men (after the bombing of his home in January, 1956) to guard his house and also applied for a gun permit. It was King's experience in Montgomery that solidified his adherence to the philosophy of nonviolence.

King was first introduced to nonviolence as a freshman at Morehouse College in 1944, when he read Henry David Thoreau's Essay on Civil Disobedience for the first time. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, King was so moved that he reread the essay several times. King continued to explore nonviolence while attending Crozer Theological Seminary, but was unable to see how nonviolence and love could work in mediating social conflict.

In 1950 King traveled to Philadelphia to hear a talk given by Dr. Mordecai Johnson, president of Howard University. Dr. Johnson had just returned from a trip to India and spoke of the life and teachings of Mohandas Gandhi. King was so inspired by what he heard that he bought a half-dozen books on Gandhi's life and works. His skepticism concerning the power of love and nonviolence diminished, as did his disbelief in the potential of this philosophy to affect social relations. King explained in Stride Toward Freedom, "Prior to reading Gandhi, I had about concluded that the ethics of Jesus were only effective in individual relationships. The 'turn the other cheek' philosophy and 'love your enemies' philosophy were only valid, I felt, when individuals were in conflict with other individuals. When racial groups and nations were in conflict a more realistic approach seemed necessary. But after reading Gandhi, I saw how utterly mistaken I was."

Through his intellectual pursuits, his experiences in Montgomery and his travels to India in 1959, King came to see nonviolence as both the philosophical and theological basis of his commitment to social change.

King urged blacks to commit to a life of nonviolence. However, if this could not be achieved, he encouraged them to at least see the power of nonviolent resistance as a tactical weapon against racism and discrimination in America. King stressed that meeting violence with more violence would not result in justice and equality, but would merely produce more violence. He believed nonviolence to be, "the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom."

On 28 August 1963, more than two hundred thousand demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to take part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A coalition of civil rights organizations planned the march to demonstrate to the entire nation that a gap existed between the tenets of American democracy and the everyday experience of black Americans. During this march, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I have a Dream" speech. The march was successful in pressuring the Kennedy administration to commit to passing federal legislation.

In the summer of 1941, A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, called for a march on Washington because the economic opportunities of the War years did not afford economic progress for the black community. The threat of 100,000 marchers in Washington D.C. pushed Roosevelt to issue executive order #8802, desegregating the defense industries, and Randolph cancelled plans for the march in response.

By 1962, the goals of the original march on Washington movement, jobs and freedom, had still not been realized. The turmoil of the South, the high levels of unemployment and the absence of franchisement for many blacks, prompted Randolph to call for a new march "for jobs and freedom." Working with Bayard Rustin and other civil rights activists--from the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice, the National Council of Churches, the United Auto Workers (UAW), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) --Randolph pursued plans for a new march. The proposed march caused great concern within the Kennedy administration. Kennedy believed that the march had the potential to undermine efforts being made to secure civil rights legislation and would damage the image of the United States internationally. He also believed that it might further aggravate racial tensions in America. Kennedy called Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders to the White House in late June 1962 but was unable to persuade the leadership to cancel the march.

A flyer produced by the National Office of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom articulated the six goals of the protest as: "meaningful civil rights laws, a massive federal works program, full and fair employment, decent housing, the right to vote, and adequate integrated education." In the wake of Kennedy's announced proposal for federal legislation after the campaign in Birmingham, the goal of the march increasingly turned toward passing the bill. The purpose of the march transcended these tangible goals in providing visibility to the struggle for civil rights. "The March on Washington established visibility in this nation. It showed the struggle was nearing a close, that people were coming together, that all the organizations could stand together," Ralph Abernathy wrote of the march. "It made it clear that we did not have to use violence to achieve the goals which we were seeking."

The Kennedy administration, politicians and southern segregationists were not the only entities initially opposing the March. Malcom X and the Nation of Islam condemned the march as well, with Malcolm continually referring to it as the "farce on Washington." Any member of the Nation who attended the march was subject to a ninety day suspension from the organization. The National Council of the AFL-CIO chose not to support the march, adopting a position of neutrality.

However, a number of international unions independently declared their support, and were present in substantial numbers; and hundreds of local unions fully supported the effort. Further, the presenters and performers at the march represented the diversity of the marchers in race and creed. They included Marian Anderson, Daisy Lee Bates, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, John Lewis, Odetta, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, Bayard Rustin, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young, Jr.

After the march, King and other civil rights leaders met with President John F. Kennedy and Vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House. Feeling the pressure of 200,000 Americans, Kennedy told them that he intended to throw his whole weight behind civil rights legislation.

 

Four years after the start of American involvement in Vietnam, Martin Luther King, Jr. issued his first statement on the War. While addressing a crowd at Howard University on 1 March 1965, King uncharacteristically concluded his talk with a discussion of the Vietnam War, calling for a negotiated peace settlement. Following this statement, King was encouraged by Stanely Levison and Bayard Rustin to focus more attention on condemning U.S. involvement in Vietnam. On 15 June 1965, at the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) orientation, King heeded their calls by delivering the speech, "Why Are You Here?" During his speech, King called for the application of "nonviolent direct action in international dimensions" and proposed a negotiated settlement coordinated by the United Nations.

King formally announced his opposition to the Vietnam War during the Ninth Annual Convention of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in August 1965. King's call for negotiations with the National Liberation Front and an immediate halt to the bombings of North Vietnam drew criticism from government officials as well as his SCLC colleagues. Following this backlash, King was advised to remain quiet on the issue of Vietnam and focus on civil rights.

Fearful of alienating President Lyndon Johnson, King continued for much of 1966 to approach the issue of Vietnam with some wariness and reticence. However, after Johnson announced plans to divert funds from the War on Poverty to Vietnam in December of 1966, King began to reassert his criticism of the War. With the aid of Levison, King prepared a statement to Senator Abraham Ribicoff's Government Operations Committee, which directly addressed Johnson's decision to increase military involvement in Vietnam.

By January 1967, many of King's closest advisors, including Levison, James Bevel, and his wife Coretta, urged him to direct more attention to Vietnam. In February, King delivered a speech entitled "The Casualties of the War in Vietnam." Addressing a panel of anti-war senators, King asserted that America's involvement in Vietnam had caused the public to forget about the civil rights movement. Despite the criticism directed at him for such remarks, King continued to campaign against the war, participating in an antiwar march in Chicago on 26 March 1967.

On 4 April 1967, King made his most public and comprehensive statement against the War. Addressing a crowd of 3,000 people in Riverside Church in New York City, King delivered a speech entitled "Beyond Vietnam." King pointed out that the war effort was "taking the young black men who have been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem." Although some activists and newspapers supported King's ideas, most responded with criticism. King's civil rights colleagues also began to disassociate themselves with his radical stance, as the NAACP issued a statement against merging the civil rights movement and peace movement. King remained undeterred by such attacks and just two weeks later, led thousands of demonstrators on an antiwar march to the United Nations.

Later that month, King and Benjamin Spock developed plans for "Vietnam Summer," a project which would mobilize grassroots opposition to the war by developing a nationwide network of volunteers. King, along with Joseph Rauh, vice-chairman of Americans for Democratic Action, organized another antiwar group, "Negotiation Now," which sought to obtain one million signatures from people opposing the War.

King continued to actively participate in the antiwar movement up until his assassination on 4 April 1968. Nearly five years after King's death, American troops withdrew from Vietnam and a peace treaty declaring the independent nations of South and North Vietnam was signed in 1973.

In November 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. and the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) met to discuss the direction of the movement following the victories of the Civil Rights legislation, the emergence of Black Power, and urban riots the previous summer. SCLC decided to launch the Poor People's Campaign, a movement to broadly address economic inequalities with nonviolent direct action. The campaign was not launched until after King's 1968 assassination, however, and the absence of King's leadership was believed to have compromised the campaign's effectiveness. The Poor People's Campaign ended in June 1968 without making a significant impact on the nation's economic policies.

The idea for the Poor People's campaign grew out of what King termed the "second phase" of the civil rights struggle. After the "first phase" had exposed the problems of segregation through nonviolence, King hoped to address what he called the "limitations to our achievements" with a "second phase." In its ideology and style, the Poor People's Campaign demonstrated a merging of the "first phase" tactics into "second phase" goals. Through nonviolent direct action, King and SCLC hoped to focus the nation on economic inequality and poverty. The campaign also differed from previous SCLC campaigns, as it aimed to address the struggles of a cross-section of minority groups. "It must not be just black people," argued King, "it must be all poor people. We must include American Indians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and even poor whites."

SCLC planned the Poor People's Campaign to be the most massive, widespread campaign of civil disobedience yet undertaken by a movement. They aimed to bring fifteen hundred protesters to Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress and other governmental agencies for an "economic bill of rights." Specifically, the campaign requested a thirty billion dollar anti-poverty package that would include a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income measure, and increased construction of low-income housing. Protest activities in Washington were to be supported by simultaneous demonstrations throughout the country. Despite division within SCLC over the campaign's feasibility, King embraced the campaign and traveled across the country speaking on poverty and went to "people-to-people tours" to recruit participants.

On 4 April 1968, King was assassinated in Memphis. The King family and SCLC leadership decided to go on with the campaign to honor King. On 12 May 1968 the first wave of demonstrators arrived in Washington, D.C. One week later, Resurrection City was built on the Washington Mall, a settlement of tents and shacks to house the protesters. Demonstrators were sent out to various federal agencies to protest and spread the message of the campaign. Although Ralph Abernathy had taken over as SCLC president following King's death, the campaign's leadership lacked the momentum that King might have provided. The combined setbacks of bad press, Robert Kennedy's assassination, and an overwhelming number of protesters (7,000 at its peak) further limited the campaign's effectiveness. Failing to force a response from legislators, the Poor People's Campaign closed camp on 19 June 1968.

"We got some difficult days ahead," Martin Luther King, Jr. told an overflowing crowd in Memphis, Tennessee, where the city's sanitation workers were striking. "But it really doesn't matter to me now, because I've been to the mountaintop." King explained, "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

The next day, 4 April 1968, a rifle shot struck King as he stood on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) member Ralph Abernathy ran to the balcony and cradled his friend's head until the paramedics arrived and rushed him to St. Joseph's Hospital. Doctors pronounced King dead at 7:05 p.m.

News of the assassination swept the nation and the world. Racial violence erupted in more than 125 cities, across 28 states and Washington, D.C. President Lyndon Johnson sent 20,000 regular troops and 24,000 National Guardsmen to the cities, and many cities enforced curfews. By 23 April forty-six people had died, 2,600 were injured, and more than 21,000 people were arrested, mostly for looting. Insurance companies faced $67 million in losses from the extensive property damage.

Militant black leaders encouraged retaliation. "Black Power" advocate Stokely Carmichael advocated a violent struggle, as NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins countered that King would have been "outraged" by the disorders and that "millions of Negroes in this country" were opposed to the violence. Wilkins then announced a nationwide campaign against racial violence emphasizing jobs for the unemployed and better community relations.

President Johnson urged unity. "We can achieve nothing by lawlessness and divisiveness among the American people." He called for a day of mourning. Memorials and rallies were held throughout the country. All public libraries, museums, and numerous seaports, public schools, businesses, and stock exchanges closed. Many sporting events, Hollywood's Oscar Awards Ceremony, and the Presidential nomination campaigns were all postponed. President Johnson requested a joint session of Congress to convene and discuss a positive response to the events, but he never followed through with the meeting.

On 8 April, Reverend Ralph Abernathy, chosen to succeed King as SCLC President, led 42,000 silent marchers, including King's widow Coretta Scott King, and other family members, to honor King and to support the Memphis sanitation workers. Eight days later, the city and the workers reached a settlement of the 65-day strike.

On 9 April, King's funeral took place in Atlanta at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King served as co-pastor along with his father and brother. Many of the nation's political and civil rights leaders, including Jacqueline Kennedy, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, numerous senators, all of the presidential hopefuls, and U.N. Undersecretary Ralph Bunche attended. Thousands blocked the streets outside, while others watched the nationally televised broadcast.

Later, two Georgia mules pulled King's coffin on a 3.5 mile course through the Atlanta streets. More than 100,000 mourners followed. King's body was interred at Southview Cemetery following a funeral at Morehouse College, where King had studied twenty years earlier.

Former Morehouse President Benjamin Mays gave King's eulogy. In his closing remarks, Mays shared how King viewed death. "If physical death was the price he had to pay to rid America of prejudice and injustice, nothing could be more redemptive."

Following an international manhunt, white segregationist James Earl Ray was arrested for King's murder on 8 June in London and later extradited to the United States. In a plea bargain, Tennessee prosecutors agreed in March 1969 to forgo seeking the death penalty if Ray pled guilty to murder charges. The circumstances surrounding this decision were later questioned, as Ray recanted his confession soon after being sentenced to a ninety-nine-year prison term and claimed that his attorney had provided inadequate representation. Ray was unsuccessful in his subsequent attempts to reverse his conviction and gain a new trial.

After recanting his guilty plea, Ray consistently maintained his innocence, claiming in his 1992 memoir that he was framed. In 1997 members of King's family publicly supported Ray's appeal for a new trial, and King's son, Dexter Scott King, proclaimed Ray's innocence. Tennessee authorities nonetheless refused to reopen the case, and Ray died in prison on 23 April 1998. Even after Ray's death, conspiracy allegations continued to surface.

MLK's sermons

The American Dream

planned to use for the textual basis for our thinking together that passage from the prologue of the book of Job where Satan is pictured as asking God, "Does Job serve thee for nought?" And I�d like to ask you to allow me to hold that sermon ["Why Serve God?"] in abeyance and preach it the next time I am in the pulpit in order to share with you some other ideas. This morning I was riding to the airport in Washington, D.C., and on the way to the airport the limousine passed by the Jefferson monument, and Reverend Andrew Young, my executive assistant, said to me, "It�s quite coincidental that we would be passing by the Jefferson Monument on Independence Day." You can get so busy in life that you forget holidays and other days, and it had slipped my mind altogether that today was the Fourth of July. And I said to him, "It is coincidental and quite significant, and I think when I get to Atlanta and go to my pulpit, I will try to preach a sermon in the spirit of the founding fathers of our nation and in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence." And so this morning I would like to use as a subject from which to preach: "The American Dream." (Yes, sir)

It wouldn�t take us long to discover the substance of that dream. It is found in those majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, words lifted to cosmic proportions: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God, Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." This is a dream. It�s a great dream.

The first saying we notice in this dream is an amazing universalism. It doesn�t say "some men," it says "all men." It doesn�t say "all white men," it says "all men," which includes black men. It does not say "all Gentiles," it says "all men," which includes Jews. It doesn�t say "all Protestants," it says "all men," which includes Catholics. (Yes, sir) It doesn�t even say "all theists and believers," it says "all men," which includes humanists and agnostics.

Then that dream goes on to say another thing that ultimately distinguishes our nation and our form of government from any totalitarian system in the world. It says that each of us has certain basic rights that are neither derived from or conferred by the state. In order to discover where they came from, it is necessary to move back behind the dim mist of eternity. They are God-given, gifts from His hands. Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent, and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality. The American dream reminds us, and we should think about it anew on this Independence Day, that every man is an heir of the legacy of dignity and worth.

Now ever since the founding fathers of our nation dreamed this dream in all of its magnificence�to use a big word that the psychiatrists use�America has been something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against herself. On the one hand we have proudly professed the great principles of democracy, but on the other hand we have sadly practiced the very opposite of those principles.

But now more than ever before, America is challenged to realize its dream, for the shape of the world today does not permit our nation the luxury of an anemic democracy. And the price that America must pay for the continued oppression of the Negro and other minority groups is the price of its own destruction. (Yes it is) For the hour is late. And the clock of destiny is ticking out. We must act now before it is too late.

And so it is marvelous and great that we do have a dream, that we have a nation with a dream; and to forever challenge us; to forever give us a sense of urgency; to forever stand in the midst of the "isness" of our terrible injustices; to remind us of the "oughtness" of our noble capacity for justice and love and brotherhood.

This morning I would like to deal with some of the challenges that we face today in our nation as a result of the American dream. First, I want to reiterate the fact that we are challenged more than ever before to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality. We are challenged to really believe that all men are created equal. And don�t misunderstand that. It does not mean that all men are created equal in terms of native endowment, in terms of intellectual capacity�it doesn�t mean that. There are certain bright stars in the human firmament in every field. (Yes, sir) It doesn�t mean that every musician is equal to a Beethoven or Handel, a Verdi or a Mozart. It doesn�t mean that every physicist is equal to an Einstein. It does not mean that every literary figure in history is equal to Aeschylus and Euripides, Shakespeare and Chaucer. (Make it plain) It does not mean that every philosopher is equal to Plato, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Hegel. It doesn�t mean that. There are individuals who do excel and rise to the heights of genius in their areas and in their fields. What it does mean is that all men are equal in intrinsic worth. (Yes)

You see, the founding fathers were really influenced by the Bible. The whole concept of the imago dei, as it is expressed in Latin, the "image of God," is the idea that all men have something within them that God injected. Not that they have substantial unity with God, but that every man has a capacity to have fellowship with God. And this gives him a uniqueness, it gives him worth, it gives him dignity. And we must never forget this as a nation: there are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God�s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. (Yes) We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man.

This is why we must fight segregation with all of our nonviolent might. (Yes, sir; Make it plain) Segregation is not only inconvenient�that isn�t what makes it wrong. Segregation is not only sociologically untenable�that isn�t what makes it wrong. Segregation is not only politically and economically unsound�that is not what makes it wrong. Ultimately, segregation is morally wrong and sinful. To use the words of a great Jewish philosopher that died a few days ago, Martin Buber, "It�s wrong because it substitutes an �I-It� relationship for the �I-Thou� relationship and relegates persons to the status of things." That�s it. (Yes, sir)

I remember when Mrs. King and I were in India, we journeyed down one afternoon to the southernmost part of India, the state of Kerala, the city of Trivandrum. That afternoon I was to speak in one of the schools, what we would call high schools in our country, and it was a school attended by and large by students who were the children of former untouchables. Now you know in India, there was the caste system�and India has done a marvelous job in grappling with this problem�but you had your full caste and individuals were in one of the castes. And then you had some sixty or seventy million people who were considered outcasts. They were the untouchables; they could not go places that other people went; they could not do certain things. And this was one of the things that Mahatma Gandhi battled�along with his struggle to end the long night of colonialism�also to end the long night of the caste system and caste untouchability. You remember some of his great fasts were around the question of making equality a reality for the Harijans, as they were called, the "untouchables." He called them the children of God, and he even adopted an untouchable as his daughter. He demonstrated in his own personal life and in his family that he was going to revolt against a whole idea. And I remember that afternoon when I stood up in that school. The principal introduced me and then as he came to the conclusion of his introduction, he says, "Young people, I would like to present to you a fellow untouchable from the United States of America." And for the moment I was a bit shocked and peeved that I would be referred to as an untouchable. (Glory to God)

Pretty soon my mind dashed back across the mighty Atlantic. And I started thinking about the fact that at that time no matter how much I needed to rest my tired body after a long night of travel, I couldn�t stop in the average motel of the highways and the hotels of the cities of the South. I started thinking about the fact that no matter how long an old Negro woman had been shopping downtown and got a little tired and needed to get a hamburger or a cup of coffee at a lunch counter, she couldn�t get it there. (Preach) I started thinking about the fact that still in too many instances, Negroes have to go to the back of the bus and have to stand up over empty seats. (Yes, sir) I started thinking about the fact that my children and the other children that would be born would have to go to segregated schools. I started thinking about the fact: twenty million of my brothers and sisters were still smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in an affluent society. I started thinking about the fact: (Make it plain) these twenty million brothers and sisters were still by and large housed in rat-infested, unendurable slums in the big cities of our nation, still attended inadequate schools faced with improper recreational facilities. And I said to myself, "Yes, I am an untouchable, and every Negro in the United States of America is an untouchable." And this is the evilness of segregation: it stigmatizes the segregated as an untouchable in a caste system. We hold these truths to be self-evident, if we are to be a great nation, that all men (all men) are created equal. God�s black children are as significant as his white children. (Yes, sir) "We hold these truths to be self-evident." One day we will learn this.

The other day Mrs. King and I spent about ten days down in Jamaica. I�d gone down to deliver the commencement address at the University of the West Indies. I always love to go that great island which I consider the most beautiful island in all the world. The government prevailed upon us to be their guests and spend some time and try to get a little rest while there on the speaking tour. And so for those days we traveled all over Jamaica. And over and over again I was impressed by one thing. Here you have people from many national backgrounds: Chinese, Indians, so-called Negroes, and you can just go down the line, Europeans, European and people from many, many nations. Do you know they all live there and they have a motto in Jamaica, "Out of many people, one people." And they say, "Here in Jamaica we are not Chinese, (Make it plain) we are not Japanese, we are not Indians, we are not Negroes, we are not Englishmen, we are not Canadians. But we are all one big family of Jamaicans." One day, here in America, I hope that we will see this and we will become one big family of Americans. Not white Americans, not black Americans, not Jewish or Gentile Americans, not Irish or Italian Americans, not Mexican Americans, not Puerto Rican Americans, but just Americans. One big family of Americans.

And I tell you this morning, my friends, the reason we got to solve this problem here in America: Because God somehow called America to do a special job for mankind and the world. (Yes, sir, Make it plain) Never before in the history of the world have so many racial groups and so many national backgrounds assembled together in one nation. And somehow if we can�t solve the problem in America the world can�t solve the problem, because America is the world in miniature and the world is America writ large. And God set us out with all of the opportunities. (Make it plain) He set us between two great oceans; (Yes, sir) made it possible for us to live with some of the great natural resources of the world. And there he gave us through the minds of our forefathers a great creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (Yes, sir) are created equal."

Now that doesn�t only apply on the race issue, it applies on the class question. You know, sometimes a class system can be as vicious and evil as a system based on racial injustice. (Yes, sir) When we say, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," and when we live it out, we know as I say so often that the "no D." is as significant as the "Ph.D." And the man who has been to "No House" is as significant as the man who�s been to Morehouse. (Make it plain today) We build our little class systems, and you know you got a lot of Negroes with classism in their veins. (Sure) You know that they don�t want to be bothered with certain other Negroes and they try to separate themselves from them. (Amen)

I remember when I was in theological school, and we were coming to the end of our years there, a classmate�he came to me to talk with me�said that he wanted to invite his mother up. And she�d struggled in order to help him get through school. He wanted to invite his mother up, but he said, "You know, the problem is I don�t know if she would quite fit in this atmosphere. You know, her verbs aren�t quite right; and she doesn�t know how to dress too well; she lives in a rural area." And I wanted to say to him so bad that you aren�t fit to finish this school. (Yes) If you cannot acknowledge your mother, if you cannot acknowledge your brothers and sisters, even if they have not risen to the heights of educational attainment, then you aren�t fit (Have mercy) to go out and try to preach to men and women. (Amen)

Oh, I�ll tell you this morning, and you learn this and you discover the meaning of "God�s image." You�ll know what the New Testament means when it says that "I revealed it to babes and so often withheld it from the wise." And I have learned a great deal in my few years, not only from the philosophers that I have studied with in the universities, not only from the theologians and the psychologists and the historians, but so often from that humble human being who didn�t have the opportunity to get an education but who had something basic deep down within. (Yes) Sometimes Aunt Jane on her knees can get more truth than the philosopher on his tiptoes. (Yes, Amen) And this is what "all men are made in the image of God" tells us. We must believe this and we must live by it. (Yes)

This is why we must join the war against poverty (Yes, sir) and believe in the dignity of all work. What makes a job menial? I�m tired of this stuff about menial labor. What makes it menial is that we don�t pay folk anything. (Yes, sir) Give somebody a job and pay them some money so they can live and educate their children and buy a home and have the basic necessities of life. And no matter what the job is it takes on dignity.

I submit to you when I took off on that plane this morning, I saw men go out there in their overalls. (Yes, sir, Every time) I saw them working on things here and there, and saw some more going out there to put the breakfast on there so that we could eat on our way to Atlanta. (Make it plain) And I said to myself that these people who constitute the ground crew are just as significant as the pilot, because this plane couldn�t move if you didn�t have the ground crew. (Amen) I submit to you that in Hugh Spaulding or Grady Hospital, (Preach it) the woman or the man who goes in there to sweep the floor is just as significant as the doctor, (Yes) because if he doesn�t get that dust off the floor germs will begin to circulate. And those same germs can do injury and harm to the human being. I submit to you this morning (Yes) that there is dignity in all work (Have mercy) when we learn to pay people decent wages. Whoever cooks in your house, whoever sweeps the floor in your house is just as significant as anybody who lives in that house. (Amen) And everybody that we call a maid is serving God in a significant way. (Preach it) And I love the maids, I love the people who have been ignored, and I want to see them get the kind of wages that they need. And their job is no longer a menial job, (No, sir) for you come to see its worth and its dignity.

Are we really taking this thing seriously? "All men are created equal." (Amen) And that means that every man who lives in a slum today (Preach it) is just as significant as John D., Nelson, or any other Rockefeller. Every man who lives in the slum is just as significant as Henry Ford. All men are created equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, rights that can�t be separated from you. [clap] Go down and tell them, (No) "You may take my life, but you can�t take my right to life. You may take liberty from me, but you can�t take my right to liberty. You may take from me the desire, you may take from me the propensity to pursue happiness, but you can�t take from me my right to pursue happiness." (Yes) "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights and among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." (Yes, sir)

Now there�s another thing that we must never forget. If we are going to make the American dream a reality, (Yes) we are challenged to work in an action program to get rid of the last vestiges of segregation and discrimination. This problem isn�t going to solve itself, however much [word inaudible] people tell us this. However much the Uncle Toms and Nervous Nellies in the Negro communities tell us this, this problem isn�t just going to work itself out. (No, sir) History is the long story of the fact (Yes) that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges without strong resistance, and they seldom do it voluntarily. And so if the American dream is to be a reality, we must work to make it a reality and realize the urgency of the moment. And we must say now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to get rid of segregation and discrimination. Now is the time to make Georgia a better state. Now is the time to make the United States a better nation. (Yes) We must live with that, and we must believe that.

And I would like to say to you this morning what I�ve tried to say all over this nation, what I believe firmly: that in seeking to make the dream a reality we must use and adopt a proper method. I�m more convinced than ever before that nonviolence is the way. I�m more convinced than ever before that violence is impractical as well as immoral. If we are to build right here a better America, we have a method (Yes, sir) as old as the insights of Jesus of Nazareth and as modern as the techniques of Mohandas K. Gandhi. We need not hate; we need not use violence. We can stand up before our most violent opponent and say: We will match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. (Make it plain) Do to us what you will and we will still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good, and so throw us in jail. (Make it plain) We will go in those jails and transform them from dungeons of shame to havens of freedom and human dignity. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities after midnight hours and drag us out on some wayside road and beat us and leave us half-dead, and as difficult as it is, we will still love you. (Amen) Somehow go around the country and use your propaganda agents to make it appear that we are not fit culturally, morally, or otherwise for integration, and we will still love you. (Yes) Threaten our children and bomb our homes, and as difficult as it is, we will still love you. (Yeah)

 

But be assured that we will ride you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we will win our freedom, but we will not only win freedom for ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and your conscience that we will win you in the process." And our victory will be a double victory.

Oh yes, love is the way. (Yes) Love is the only absolute. More and more I see this. I�ve seen too much hate to want to hate myself; hate is too great a burden to bear. (You bet, Yes) I�ve seen it on the faces of too many sheriffs of the South�I�ve seen hate. In the faces and even the walk of too many Klansmen of the South, I�ve seen hate. Hate distorts the personality. Hate does something to the soul that causes one to lose his objectivity. The man who hates can�t think straight; (Amen) the man who hates can�t reason right; the man who hates can�t see right; the man who hates can�t walk right. (Yeah) And I know now that Jesus is right, (Yeah) that love is the way. And this is why John said, "God is love," (Yes, sir) so that he who hates does not know God, but he who loves (get in the door) at that moment has the key that opens the door (Yeah) to the meaning of ultimate reality. So this morning there is so much that we have to offer to the world. (Yes, sir)

We have a great dream. (Great dream) It started way back in 1776, and God grant that America will be true to her dream.

About two years ago now, I stood with many of you who stood there in person and all of you who were there in spirit before the Lincoln Monument in Washington. (Yes) As I came to the end of my speech there, I tried to tell the nation about a dream I had. I must confess to you this morning that since that sweltering August afternoon in 1963, my dream has often turned into a nightmare; (Lord) I�ve seen it shattered. I saw it shattered one night on Highway 80 in Alabama when Mrs. Viola Liuzzo was shot down. (Lord, Lord) I had a nightmare and saw my dream shattered one night in Marion, Alabama, when Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot down. (Lord) I saw my dream shattered one night in Selma when Reverend Reeb was clubbed to the ground by a vicious racist and later died. And oh, I continue to see it shattered as I walk through the Harlems of our nation (Yes) and see sometimes ten and fifteen Negroes trying to live in one or two rooms. (Yes) I�ve been down to the Delta of Mississippi since then, and I�ve seen my dream shattered as I met hundreds of people who didn�t earn more than six or seven hundred dollars a week. I�ve seen my dream shattered as I�ve walked the streets of Chicago (Make it plain) and seen Negroes, young men and women, with a sense of utter hopelessness because they can�t find any jobs. And they see life as a long and desolate corridor with no exit signs. And not only Negroes at this point. I�ve seen my dream shattered because I�ve been through Appalachia, and I�ve seen my white brothers along with Negroes living in poverty. (Yeah) And I�m concerned about white poverty as much as I�m concerned about Negro poverty. (Make it plain)

So yes, the dream has been shattered, (Amen) and I have had my nightmarish experiences, but I tell you this morning once more that I haven�t lost the faith. (No, sir) I still have a dream (A dream, Yes, sir) that one day all of God�s children will have food and clothing and material well-being for their bodies, culture and education for their minds, and freedom for their spirits. (Yes)

I still have a dream this morning: (Yes) one day all of God�s black children will be respected like his white children.

I still have a dream this morning (Yes) that one day the lion and the lamb will lie down together, and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.

I still have a dream this morning that one day all men everywhere will recognize that out of one blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth.

I still have a dream this morning (Yes, sir) that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be made low; the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

I still have a dream this morning (Amen) that truth will reign supreme and all of God�s children will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. And when this day comes the morning stars will sing together (Yes) and the sons of God will shout for joy.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men (All right) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, (Yes, sir) that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

We open the doors of the church now. If someone needs to accept Christ, (Yes, sir) this is a marvelous opportunity, a great moment to make a decision. And as we sing together, we bid you come at this time by Christian experience, baptism, watch care. But come at this moment, become a part of this great Christian fellowship and accept Christ (Yes, sir) as your personal savior.

Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, on 4 July 1965.

Unfulfilled Dreams

I want to preach this morning from the subject: "Unfulfilled Dreams." "Unfulfilled Dreams." My text is taken from the eighth chapter of First Kings. Sometimes it�s overlooked. It is not one of the most familiar passages in the Old Testament. But I never will forget when I first came across it. It struck me as a passage having cosmic significance because it says so much in so few words about things that we all experience in life. David, as you know, was a great king. And the one thing that was foremost in David�s mind and in his heart was to build a great temple. The building of the temple was considered to be the most significant thing facing the Hebrew people, and the king was expected to bring this into being. David had the desire; he started.

And then we come to that passage over in the eighth chapter of First Kings, which reads, "And it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said unto David my father, �Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was within thine heart.�" And that�s really what I want to talk about this morning: it is well that it was within thine heart. As if to say, "David, you will not be able to finish the temple. You will not be able to build it. But I just want to bless you, because it was within thine heart. Your dream will not be fulfilled. The majestic hopes that guided your days will not be carried out in terms of an actual temple coming into being that you were able to build. But I bless you, David, because it was within thine heart. You had the desire to do it; you had the intention to do it; you tried to do it; you started to do it. And I bless you for having the desire and the intention in your heart. It is well that it was within thine heart."

So many of us in life start out building temples: temples of character, temples of justice, temples of peace. And so often we don�t finish them. Because life is like Schubert�s "Unfinished Symphony." At so many points we start, we try, we set out to build our various temples. And I guess one of the great agonies of life is that we are constantly trying to finish that which is unfinishable. We are commanded to do that. And so we, like David, find ourselves in so many instances having to face the fact that our dreams are not fulfilled.

Now let us notice first that life is a continual story of shattered dreams. Mahatma Gandhi labored for years and years for the independence of his people. And through a powerful nonviolent revolution he was able to win that independence. For years the Indian people had been dominated politically, exploited economically, segregated and humiliated by foreign powers, and Gandhi struggled against it. He struggled to unite his own people, and nothing was greater in his mind than to have India�s one great, united country moving toward a higher destiny. This was his dream.

But Gandhi had to face the fact that he was assassinated and died with a broken heart, because that nation that he wanted to unite ended up being divided between India and Pakistan as a result of the conflict between the Hindus and the Moslems. Life is a long, continual story of setting out to build a great temple and not being able to finish it.

Woodrow Wilson dreamed a dream of a League of Nations, but he died before the promise was delivered.

The Apostle Paul talked one day about wanting to go to Spain. It was Paul�s greatest dream to go to Spain, to carry the gospel there. Paul never got to Spain. He ended up in a prison cell in Rome. This is the story of life.

So many of our forebearers used to sing about freedom. And they dreamed of the day that they would be able to get out of the bosom of slavery, the long night of injustice. (Yes, sir) And they used to sing little songs: "Nobody knows de trouble I seen, nobody knows but Jesus." (Yes) They thought about a better day as they dreamed their dream. And they would say, "I�m so glad the trouble don�t last always. (Yeah) By and by, by and by I�m going to lay down my heavy load." (Yes, sir) And they used to sing it because of a powerful dream. (Yes) But so many died without having the dream fulfilled.

And each of you this morning in some way is building some kind of temple. The struggle is always there. It gets discouraging sometimes. It gets very disenchanting sometimes. Some of us are trying to build a temple of peace. We speak out against war, we protest, but it seems that your head is going against a concrete wall. It seems to mean nothing. (Glory to God) And so often as you set out to build the temple of peace you are left lonesome; you are left discouraged; you are left bewildered.

Well, that is the story of life. And the thing that makes me happy is that I can hear a voice crying through the vista of time, saying: "It may not come today or it may not come tomorrow, but it is well that it is within thine heart. (Yes) It�s well that you are trying." (Yes it is) You may not see it. The dream may not be fulfilled, but it�s just good that you have a desire to bring it into reality. (Yes) It�s well that it�s in thine heart.

Thank God this morning that we do have hearts to put something meaningful in. Life is a continual story of shattered dreams.

Now let me bring out another point. Whenever you set out to build a creative temple, whatever it may be, you must face the fact that there is a tension at the heart of the universe between good and evil. It�s there: a tension at the heart of the universe between good and evil. (Yes, sir) Hinduism refers to this as a struggle between illusion and reality. Platonic philosophy used to refer to it as a tension between body and soul. Zoroastrianism, a religion of old, used to refer to it as a tension between the god of light and the god of darkness. Traditional Judaism and Christianity refer to it as a tension between God and Satan. Whatever you call it, there is a struggle in the universe between good and evil.

Now not only is that struggle structured out somewhere in the external forces of the universe, it�s structured in our own lives. Psychologists have tried to grapple with it in their way, and so they say various things. Sigmund Freud used to say that this tension is a tension between what he called the id and the superego.

But you know, some of us feel that it�s a tension between God and man. And in every one of us this morning, there�s a war going on. (Yes, sir) It�s a civil war. (Yes, sir) I don�t care who you are, I don�t care where you live, there is a civil war going on in your life. (Yes it is) And every time you set out to be good, there�s something pulling on you, telling you to be evil. It�s going on in your life. (Preach it) Every time you set out to love, something keeps pulling on you, trying to get you to hate. (Yes, Yes, sir) Every time you set out to be kind and say nice things about people, something is pulling on you to be jealous and envious and to spread evil gossip about them. (Yes, Preach it) There�s a civil war going on. There is a schizophrenia, as the psychologists or the psychiatrists would call it, going on within all of us. And there are times that all of us know somehow that there is a Mr. Hyde and a Dr. Jekyll in us. And we end up having to cry out with Ovid, the Latin poet, "I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do." We end up having to agree with Plato that the human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions. Or sometimes we even have to end up crying out with Saint Augustine as he said in his Confessions, "Lord, make me pure, but not yet." (Amen) We end up crying out with the Apostle Paul, (Preach it) "The good that I would I do not: And the evil that I would not, that I do." Or we end up having to say with Goethe that "there�s enough stuff in me to make both a gentleman and a rogue." (All right, Amen) There�s a tension at the heart of human nature. (Oh yeah) And whenever we set out to dream our dreams and to build our temples, we must be honest enough to recognize it.

And this brings me to the basic point of the text. In the final analysis, God does not judge us by the separate incidents or the separate mistakes that we make, but by the total bent of our lives. In the final analysis, God knows (Yes) that his children are weak and they are frail. (Yes, he does) In the final analysis, what God requires is that your heart is right. (Amen, Yes) Salvation isn�t reaching the destination of absolute morality, but it�s being in the process and on the right road. (Yes)

There�s a highway called Highway 80. I�ve marched on that highway from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. But I never will forget my first experience with Highway 80 was driving with Coretta and Ralph and Juanita Abernathy to California. We drove from Montgomery all the way to Los Angeles on Highway 80�it goes all the way out to Los Angeles. And you know, being a good man, being a good woman, does not mean that you�ve arrived in Los Angeles. It simply means that you�re on Highway 80. (Lord have mercy) Maybe you haven�t gotten as far as Selma, or maybe you haven�t gotten as far as Meridian, Mississippi, or Monroe, Louisiana�that isn�t the question. The question is whether you are on the right road. (That�s right) Salvation is being on the right road, not having reached a destination.

Oh, we have to finally face the point that there is none good but the father. (That�s right) But, if you�re on the right road, God has the power (Yes, sir) and he has something called Grace. (Yes, sir) And he puts you where you ought to be.

Now the terrible thing in life is to be trying to get to Los Angeles on Highway 78. That�s when you are lost. (Yes) That sheep was lost, not merely because he was doing something wrong in that parable, but he was on the wrong road. (Yes) And he didn�t even know where he was going; he became so involved in what he was doing, nibbling sweet grass, (Make it plain) that he got on the wrong road. (Amen) Salvation is being sure that you�re on the right road. (Yes, Preach it) It is well�that�s what I like about it�that it was within thine heart. (Yes)

Some weeks ago somebody was saying something to me about a person that I have great, magnificent respect for. And they were trying to say something that didn�t sound too good about his character, something he was doing. And I said, "Number one, I don�t believe it. But number two, even if he is, (Make it plain) he�s a good man because his heart is right." (Amen) And in the final analysis, God isn�t going to judge him by that little separate mistake that he�s making, (No, sir) because the bent of his life is right.

And the question I want to raise this morning with you: is your heart right? (Yes, Preach) If your heart isn�t right, fix it up today; get God to fix it up. (Go ahead) Get somebody to be able to say about you, "He may not have reached the highest height, (Preach it) he may not have realized all of his dreams, but he tried." (Yes) Isn�t that a wonderful thing for somebody to say about you? "He tried to be a good man. (Yes) He tried to be a just man. He tried to be an honest man. (Yes) His heart was in the right place." (Yes) And I can hear a voice saying, crying out through the eternities, "I accept you. (Preach it) You are a recipient of my grace because it was in your heart. (Yes) And it is so well that it was within thine heart." (Yes, sir)

I don�t know this morning about you, but I can make a testimony. (Yes, sir, That�s my life) You don�t need to go out this morning saying that Martin Luther King is a saint. Oh, no. (Yes) I want you to know this morning that I�m a sinner like all of God�s children. But I want to be a good man. (Yes, Preach it) And I want to hear a voice saying to me one day, "I take you in and I bless you, because you try. (Yes, Amen) It is well (Preach it) that it was within thine heart." (Yes) What�s in your heart this morning? (Oh Lord) If you get your heart right . . . [gap in tape]

Oh this morning, if I can leave anything with you, let me urge you to be sure that you have a strong boat of faith. [laughter] The winds are going to blow. (Yes) The storms of disappointment are coming. (Yes) The agonies and the anguishes of life are coming. (Yes, sir) And be sure that your boat is strong, and also be very sure that you have an anchor. (Amen) In times like these, you need an anchor. And be very sure that your anchor holds. (Yes, Glory to God)

It will be dark sometimes, and it will be dismal and trying, and tribulations will come. But if you have faith in the God that I�m talking about this morning, it doesn�t matter. (Yes) For you can stand up amid the storms. And I say it to you out of experience this morning, yes, I�ve seen the lightning flash. (Yes, sir) I�ve heard the thunder roll. (Yes) I�ve felt sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus, saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, (Yes, sir) never to leave me alone. (Thank you, Jesus) No, never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me. Never to leave me alone. (Glory to God)

And when you get this faith, you can walk with your feet solid to the ground and your head to the air, and you fear no man. (Go ahead) And you fear nothing that comes before you. (Yes, sir) Because you know that God is even in Crete. (Amen) If you ascend to the heavens, God is there. If you descend to hell, God is even there. If you take the wings of the morning and fly out to the uttermost parts of the sea, even God is there. Everywhere we turn we find him. We can never escape him. [recording ends]

 

 

Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, on 3 March 1968

When I was a child he was my favorite person throughout all of history.  But now that Im older and considerably more evil I prefer the violent revolutionaries to the nonviolent ones.  Were I black Id be much more of a Malcolm X fan now.