MLK Tribute

We enjoy a day off of school or from work.. We don’t mind that bills don’t arrive in our mailbox today.. We appreciate one of the greatest leaders from the previous century in Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you live in Pittsburgh, like my family, you may or may not already know that there are beautiful murals around the city that honor MLK (click here).

But do you know what MLK stood for? Have you told your kids about him? Has your heart been pricked by the realization that this man gave such a call against the injustices that plagued our society against minority peoples only five decades ago?

He captured the essence of this in what was has been ranked the top American speech of the 20th century, MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. himself to over 200,000 civil rights supporters on August 28, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

So here it is.. The video of MLK’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech and a portion of the closing text follows.

I Have A Dream (closing portion)
By: Martin Luther King, Jr.

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.”

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 there 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.

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.

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

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. 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, 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!”

I, too, have a dream.. That one day we’ll have to look up the word injustice because we no longer see it played out in our world. That one day freedom will ring not only for the USA but for all peoples, everywhere. I, too, have a dream that one day you and I will stand before a great God and give an account for the ideals that we’ve carried out in our lives and He will say to us, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

What’s your dream?