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53 years since MLK's "I have a dream" speech
Aug. 28 marked 53 years since that historic address by Martin Luther King at the National Mall in Washington D.C. A quarter-million people were there to experience it in person.
Any DUers recall hearing the speech back in the day? Where you were and what impression it made on you?
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
But that iconic line did not come until 11 minutes into Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech. So we thought today would be a good time to play some other parts of the speech that are not quite as famous.
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. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt...
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, 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.
But that iconic line did not come until 11 minutes into Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech. So we thought today would be a good time to play some other parts of the speech that are not quite as famous.
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. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt...
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, 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.
http://www.npr.org/2016/08/28/491726890/marking-the-53rd-anniversary-of-the-march-on-washington
