78
King’s March on Washington
Address
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O
ne hundred years ago, Lincoln signed a law that gave freedom to all
slaves in the United States. But one hundred years later, we must face
the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later,
the life of the
Negro is still sadly chained by segregation and discrimination.
When the creators of our vast republic wrote the magnificent words of the
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were making a promise
to all of their children. This promise was that all men would be guaranteed the
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is clear today that America
has not kept her promise
as far as her citizens of color
are concerned.
Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that
the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be quiet and happy will have a
rude awakening if the nation returns to doing things the way they have always
been done.
There will be neither rest nor peace in America until the Negro is given his
rights as a citizen. But there is something that I must say to my people who
stand waiting at the doorway into the palace of justice. In the process of getting
our rights, we must not be guilty of wrongful acts. We must not allow our protest
to fall into violence. Again and again we must rise to the challenge of meeting
physical force with soul force. Go back to Mississippi. Go back to Alabama. Go
back to Georgia. Go back to the ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that
somehow this situation can and will be changed.
