“I have a dream” is the title of Martin Luther King’s most famous speech. Martin Luther King gave this speech nearly half a century ago on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In this speech, King proclaimed to the whole world his vision of the future of the United States of America, where white and black populations could coexist as equal citizens of their country.
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Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech is still widely recognized as a masterpiece of oratory. Probably, many famous politicians have revised it more than once, polishing their rhetorical skills.
Oratorical techniques
Let us also look at this famous speech from the point of view of Martin Luther King’s use of special oratorical techniques that formulate the theses of his speech, turning his speech into a powerful propaganda weapon.
Style and format. Martin Luther King, being a Baptist minister, delivered a real speech-sermon. Of course, it was not a sermon in its pure form, but the speech took place precisely in a religious format, which at that time was so close to the 300 thousand Americans who stood at the foot of the Lincoln Monument. The style of the speech is primarily dictated by the author’s rejection of standard political slogans and turning to such a personal story about his dream.
Preparing for the performance. It is worth noting that this speech was not spontaneous; Martin Luther King approached his speech “I Have a Dream” consciously and very seriously. During the speech, the author occasionally used his notes, which helped him deliver an excellent emotional speech, without reservations or hesitations. His voice sounded so natural and confident that this confidence was instantly transmitted to everyone present. Without careful preparation, it would be simply impossible to deliver such an infectious speech.
Metaphors.“We can hew the stone of hope from the mountain of despair,” “we can transform the discordant voices of our people into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.” Metaphors made King's theses clearer, brighter, and were able to truly give his thoughts the emotional shades of a real dream, conveying them to the very depths of the minds and hearts of his listeners.
Quotes. King's speech is replete with allusions to the Old and New Testaments, the American Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Manifesto and the United States Constitution. The author deliberately uses quotes from those sources that are recognized both among his supporters and among his opponents, thus addressing his speech to both, increasing his chances of influencing listeners.
Pace and pauses. The most important role in this speech is played by the pace of text pronunciation and logical pauses. They highlight every phrase of speech, every complete thought. The main tempo of the speech is smooth, with a gradual tendency to accelerate, strengthening the emotional component, which warms up the crowd of listeners, causing loud applause and cries of approval.
Audience. You most likely noticed nodding faces in the background of King's speech, which reflects their confidence in the speaker, real faith in his ideas. These individuals influence our perception of the speech “I have a dream” subconsciously, using the human tendency to conformism, the reluctance to go against the opinion of the majority. This oratorical technique is used by many politicians, and it has not lost its relevance to this day.
Cyclicity of speech. King's speech cannot be called a typical sequential presentation of one thought. Pay attention to the fact that he repeatedly returns to certain points of his speech. Commonplaces are the speaker’s repeated appeals to his comrades from Colorado, Mississippi, Alabama, which echo ideas already mentioned by the author earlier, return listeners to these thoughts, and make them think once again about the things that are important to King.
General points
The very concept of the speech is structured in such a way that Martin Luther King shares his dream with his comrades. He does not declare how it should be and what should be done, but only talks about what he dreams of. However, the form of presentation of the speech does not detract from the power of the impact of his theses on the audience, because King does not just recite, calling for reason, but touches the feelings of the listeners and instills his ideas, his dream, into their heads. And this dream becomes common, and people begin to believe in it.
In addition, Martin Luther King addresses his speech not only to the audience gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, but also to the country's leadership, to the people making the most important decisions. This fact dictates the special logical structure of the theses in the speaker’s speech. We can say that some of Martin Luther King’s statements and statements in his “I have a dream” speech were similar to blackmail of the US authorities: “We will not calm down until ...,” he says, turning to his comrades to indicate their sense of identity with the protest movement, on the one hand, and appealing to their opponents to force them to enter into negotiations to avoid unrest, on the other hand.
Speech Quotes
“I have a dream” - “I have a dream”
“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.” “And although we face difficulties today and will face them tomorrow, I still have a dream. This dream is deeply rooted in the American Dream.”
“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 that one day in Alabama, with its vicious racists and a governor who speaks of intervention and nullification, one day, in Alabama, little black boys and girls will join hands as sisters and brothers with little white boys and girls.”
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On January 15, 1929, the famous American human rights activist and brilliant orator, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martin Luther King was born. Throughout his short life, he fought for the rights of blacks, participated in campaigns against poverty and the Vietnam War, advocating non-violent methods of fighting the system.
Inspired by the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi, he called for achieving equality through peaceful means. And although King's death - he was killed by a sniper on April 4, 1968 on the balcony of a Memphis motel - shook the faith of those who supported him in the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance, King's principles formed the basis of the American democratic dream.
Martin Luther King is one of the most prominent figures in American history. The third Monday in January is celebrated in America as Martin Luther King Day. This is a national holiday and a public holiday.
Martin Luther King was a unique politician. His performances drew crowds, eliciting an enthusiastic response from the audience. Today they are considered classics of oratory.
(I have a dream) is the title of Martin Luther King's most famous speech. The civil rights activist gave this speech half a century ago on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Many of King’s sayings have become “winged” and are quite suitable for our time. On Martin Luther King's birthday website collected rare photographs and apt quotes from the charismatic human rights activist from his book and speeches.
Martin Luther King and his son remove the ashes of a cross burned in their yard, 1960.
- People hate each other because they fear each other; they are afraid because they don’t know anything about each other; they don’t know because they don’t communicate, and they can’t communicate because they are separated.
- War is not only “a way to resolve differences.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, filling the homes of our fellow citizens with the disabled and widows, injecting the poisonous drugs of hatred into the veins of good people, sending people home from dark and bloody battlefields maimed and psychologically damaged will never be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
Martin Luther King before he was jailed for "demonstrating without a permit" in Birmingham, Alabama. April 12, 1963.
- The Achilles heel of violence is that it is a spiral leading into the abyss, giving birth to exactly what it is trying to destroy. Instead of reducing evil, it multiplies it. By force you can kill a liar, but you cannot kill a lie and help the truth. You will kill the hater, but you will not destroy hatred. On the contrary, violence increases hatred. And so on in a circle.
- The ultimate measure of a person's worth is not how he behaves in times of comfort and convenience, but how he carries himself in times of struggle and controversy.
- He who accepts evil without resistance becomes its accomplice.
- A person cannot ride on your back unless it is bent.
Martin Luther King during his march from Selma, Alabama, 1965.
- Cowardice asks - is it safe? Expediency asks - is it prudent? Vanity asks - is this popular? But conscience asks - is this right? And the time comes when you have to take a position that is neither safe, nor prudent, nor popular, but it must be taken because it is right.
- Riots are the language of those who have not been listened to.
- Nonviolence is a powerful and sure weapon. This is a unique weapon in history that wins without inflicting wounds.
Martin Luther King - I Have a Dream
“I am pleased to participate with you today in what will go down in history as the largest demonstration in support of freedom in the history of our country. One hundred years ago, the great American in whose symbolic shadow we now stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This document, of great significance, became a ray of hope for millions of black slaves who were sweltering under the heat of soul-searing injustice. He became the joy-bringing dawn that was destined to end the long night of imprisonment.
But a hundred years later, we must sadly admit that black people still have not gained freedom. One hundred years later, the Negro is still shackled in the shackles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. A hundred years later, blacks live on an island of poverty in the middle of a vast ocean of prosperity. A hundred years later, blacks are still huddled in a corner of American society and feel like outcasts in their own country.
That is why we have gathered here today to highlight the enormity of the situation. You could say we came to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the Founding Fathers of our republic created the majestic text of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they signed a promissory note that was to be passed down from generation to generation to every American. This bill was a guarantee that everyone would be guaranteed the rights to “Life, Liberty and the right to seek Happiness.”
It is clear today that America has defaulted on its promise to black citizens. In defiance of an inviolable obligation, America issued the blacks a check that could not be cashed due to “insufficient funds in the account.” But we refuse to believe that the Bank of Justice has stopped making payments. We refuse to believe that there are not enough funds in our nation's reservoirs of opportunity. Therefore, we have come to receive a check that can provide us with the riches of freedom and the guarantee of justice at a moment's notice.
We also gather in this sacred place to remind America of the urgency of the situation. This is not the time to cool down or take the sedative of incremental reforms. It is time to rise from the dark, forlorn valley of segregation and step onto the sunlit road to racial justice. It's time to help our nation emerge from the quicksand of racial injustice and onto the firmament of brotherhood. It's time to bring justice to all of God's children.
Ignoring the urgency of the situation can have a detrimental effect on the country. This sweltering summer of legitimate black protest will not end until the empowering autumn of freedom and equality arrives. 1963 is not the end, but the beginning. Those hoping that the blacks needed to let off steam and will now calm down will be in for a rude awakening if the country returns to business as usual.
There will be no peace or rest for America until blacks are given civil rights. The storm of protest will shake the foundation of our nation until the clear day of justice comes.
But I must say to my people standing on the warm steps leading to the Palace of Justice: in the struggle for our rightful place, we must not commit illegal actions. Let us not quench our thirst for freedom by draining the cup of bile and hatred. We must always fight on the basis of order and dignity. We must not allow our creative protest to turn into physical violence. Again and again we need to rise above, responding to physical strength with strength of spirit.
The new and astonishing militancy which has engulfed the black community must not lead us to mistrust all white men, for many of our white brothers, as their presence here today shows, have come to realize that their destiny is intimately bound up with ours. They realized that their freedom is inextricably linked with our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And stepping forward, we must give our word that we will move on. You can't turn back.
Some ask civil liberties activists, “When will you calm down?” We will not rest while Black people are victims of unspeakable police violence. We will not rest until our bodies, tired from the road, can find shelter in motels on the highways and in city hotels. We will not rest until the main movement of blacks is from small ghettos to larger ones. We will never rest as long as our children's dignity and identity are violated by "Whites Only" signs. We cannot and will not rest until the black man in Mississippi has no right to vote and the black man in New York feels he has nothing to vote for. No, no, we do not rest and will not rest until judgment flows down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I know that some of those who came went through tribulation and temptation. Some had just left cramped prison cells. Some came from places where, in their quest for freedom, they were overwhelmed by persecution and police brutality. You are veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work and know that undeserved suffering atones for sins.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that one way or another the situation can and will be changed.
May we not wallow in the valley of despair. I will tell you today, my friends, that despite today's difficulties and disappointments, I have a dream. And this dream is deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day our country will rise up and live by the true meaning of its beliefs - we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.
I'm dreaming that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and former slaveholders will be able to share a brotherly meal.
I dream that one day even Mississippi, a desert state sweltering under the heat of injustice and oppression, will become an oasis of freedom and justice.
I dream that one day my four children will live in a country where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by their personality.
I'm dreaming today!
I dream that one day in Alabama, infested with racists, with a governor who spouts talk of intervention and nullification; one day, down in Alabama, black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with white boys and white girls as brothers and sisters.
I'm dreaming today!
I dream that one day the valleys will rise, the hills and mountains will fall, the ravines will become plain, the crooked will become straight, and the Glory of the Lord will be revealed to the world, and all living things will see it.
This is our hope. With faith in her, I will return to the southern states. With this faith, we can carve a stone of hope from the block of despair.
With this faith, we can create a symphony of brotherhood out of the cacophony of differences. With this faith we can work together, pray together, fight together, go to prison together, fight for freedom together, knowing that one day we will be free.
The day will come, the day will come, when all the children of God will sing, adding a new meaning: “My country, to you, / land of freedom, / I sing a hymn.” / A homeland for my grandfathers, / A haven for a wanderer, / Let the ringing of freedom be heard from every hill.” And if America is meant to be a great nation, then it will happen.
And so let the voice of freedom ring from the high hills of New Hampshire.
Let the voice of freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let the voice of freedom ring from the heights of the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania!
Let the voice of freedom ring from the snowy peaks of the Colorado Rockies.
Let the voice of freedom ring from the feminine peaks of California.
But that's not all.
Let the voice of freedom ring from Stone Mountain in Georgia.
Let the voice of freedom ring from Lookout Mountain in Tennessee. Let the voice of freedom ring from every hill and mound of the Mississippi. Let the ringing be heard from every hill of freedom!
And when this happens, when we let freedom ring, when we let it ring in every town, in every hamlet, in every state and every city, we will be able to hasten the day when all the children of God, black and white, Jew and Gentile, Protestant and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing the words from the old Negro religious hymn: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank you God, we are free at last!”
The atmosphere in Washington that day was a mixture of hope and excitement. It seems to me that everyone who took part in this march felt a new strength in themselves. We all felt that the goals we were pursuing were noble and what we were achieving was achievable. It felt like we were witnessing a whole new era, a renaissance of hope and activism. It was truly inspiring.
But all this did not happen in one day: this march was preceded by many weeks and months of struggle. As a civil rights activist, I often spoke with Robert Kennedy, who was then very worried because he had been listening too much to Edgar Hoover and the FBI, the voices of the white American right and the press, who expected only the worst from us and predicted an incredible surge violence. We convinced Kennedy that our movement would achieve strictly defined goals, that we would not resort to violence, and he really wanted to believe us, but our opponents had too much influence on him. The city was surrounded by police, and the military was just waiting for a signal.
It was a glorious day. We had high hopes and they all came true. I remember the speaker who spoke before Dr. King was a determined young man named John Lewis from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He spoke very frankly about American leaders, although he softened his tone toward the end of his speech when several activists asked him to do so. It was a very good speech. Before Dr. King took the floor, we heard several more inspiring speeches, and there were songs and music.
Of course, the highlight of the day was the “I Have a Dream” speech. It is considered one of the greatest speeches in American history. Its contents did not surprise me at all, because we worked together to write it and these ideas were very close to us, but we were completely unprepared for the way Dr. King delivered it. We clearly saw in front of us the images that he spoke about in his speech, and her language was mesmerizing.
However, I must say something else about this speech that I always say when I lecture about Dr. King to students all over America. I tell them you have to study the whole speech carefully because the text up to the words “I have a dream” is a reflection of what he strives for. The details and passion of the struggle are revealed precisely in those paragraphs that precede the famous phrase.
The spirit that Dr. King tried to revive in people was a truly American spirit, just like his struggle. And in this struggle, I was especially inspired by the fact that Dr. King's words gave strength to ordinary people who finally realized their own capabilities.
My political views were already formed by the time I first met Dr. King. I was already quite active in the fight for people's civil rights. I came to him with certain expectations, and he fully met them. Like many black men of my generation, I lived through two extremely important moments in American history: I was born during the Great Depression and I fought for America against the Nazis in World War II.
However, after the war, I returned to my homeland, where black Americans were denied their basic civil rights - a so-called democracy in which political evil continued to humiliate us. Then we looked around and saw England, Belgium and France, the great colonialists who desperately clung to their colonies even after the end of World War II. I still believe that it was this experience that formed the basis for the beginning of the struggle for civil rights in America. We had to take a risk and fight this injustice and evil.
Dr. King left behind a great legacy, but to my great regret, it is neglected in American schools. It is simply not studied. Why? Because reactionary America is still trying to deny those hopes and achievements. Our heritage is under vicious attack from legislators, Congress, courts and judges who want to leave our struggles in the past while simultaneously undermining the foundations of modern struggles.
This is why I sometimes say in my speeches that we must stop idolizing Dr. King and look at him as a simple man who inspired himself and others to fight for civil rights. Pay attention to the details: his strategy, speech, intelligence and thinking. Only then will you be able to understand how this simple man found the strength to reinvent himself. Who was Martin Luther King before he became Dr. Martin Luther King? After all, he experienced the same difficulties and hardships that many of his followers experienced. He had the same fears and hopes, anxieties and expectations. To deify him means to some extent belittle his achievements. Therefore, I would not advise this and would insist on re-evaluating his achievements, which, undoubtedly, were achievements of the highest order.
One of my most vivid memories of that day was something I will likely never experience again: a giant wave of people going home with a sense of satisfaction and hope. This was America at its best. And I have no doubt that we can get her back if we put in the effort. We need leaders, speakers and women we can trust, not a compromise form of leadership that cynically defends the power of a few at the expense of the many.
We now face a new and much more complex problem. Part of this dilemma is that we Americans have been able to convince ourselves to believe in the nobility that America supposedly represents. However, the truth is that now we are more likely to be scoundrels than righteous. We are not yet able to admit this. Black people still bear the brunt of this villainy, but today the lens through which we must view our struggle is not just race: it is gender, economics, human rights, the formation of a powerful elite and right-wing populist movements that seek to undermine the foundations American democracy and impose their version of a great America.
Now the first rays of a new struggle have appeared on the horizon. People's patience has come to an end again. Americans have turned their attention to those who are working hard to keep America at this stage of aggression, hostility and obsession with being number one in the world. I am amazed at the cruelty of America, American politics and society. But the direction of the wind is changing. In my experience, when people's patience runs out, activism begins to gain momentum, and through activism, change comes.
I feel that this spirit is already in the air when I give lectures at colleges in America, where I am now being invited much more often. Young people are waiting for change. In them I see optimism and hope that they cannot yet clearly express. But sooner or later they will express them, because they have to. And this is also the legacy of Dr. King
InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively from foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.
MARTIN LUTHER KING (1929-1968) - American priest and social activist, leader of the black civil rights movement in the 1950s-1960s. In October 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to the movement of nonviolent resistance to racial oppression. In 1968, he organized the Poor People's Campaign to unite poor people of all races in the fight against poverty. To support the garbage strike, he traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
“I Have a Dream” is Martin Luther King's most famous speech, in which he described his vision of a future where white and black citizens of the United States would enjoy equal rights and opportunities.
Martin Luther King. I have a dream
Five decades ago, the great American under whose symbolic shadow we gather today signed the Negro Emancipation Proclamation. This important decree became a majestic beacon of light of hope for millions of black slaves scorched by the flames of withering injustice. It became a joyful dawn that ended the long night of captivity.
But after a hundred years we are forced to face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro, unfortunately, continues to be crippled by the shackles of segregation and the shackles of discrimination. A hundred years later, the black man lives on a deserted island of poverty in the middle of a vast ocean of material prosperity. A hundred years later, the black man still languishes on the margins of American society and finds himself in exile on his own soil. So we came here today to highlight the drama of the deplorable situation.
In a sense, we came to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the beautiful words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note that every American would inherit. According to this bill, all people were guaranteed the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Today it has become obvious that America has not been able to pay on this bill what is due to its colored citizens. Instead of paying this sacred debt, America issued a bad check to the Negro people, which returned marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice has failed. We refuse to believe that there are not enough funds in the vast reservoirs of our state's capabilities. And we have come to receive this check - a check by which we will be given the treasures of freedom and guarantees of justice. We have come here to this sacred place also to remind America of the urgent requirement of today. This is not the time to be satisfied with pacifying measures or to take the sedative medicine of gradual solutions. It is time to emerge from the dark valley of segregation and enter the sunlit path of racial justice. It is time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. The time has come to lead our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be mortally dangerous for our nation to ignore the special importance of this moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negroes. The sultry summer of legitimate Negro discontent will not end until the invigorating autumn of freedom and equality arrives. 1963 is not the end, but the beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to let off steam and will now calm down will have a rude awakening if our nation returns to business as usual. Until the Negro is given his civil rights, America will see neither serenity nor peace. Revolutionary storms will continue to shake the foundations of our state until the bright day of justice comes.
But there is something else that I must say to my people who stand on the blessed threshold at the entrance to the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not give rise to accusations of unseemly behavior. Let us not seek to quench our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must always wage our struggle from a noble position of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. We must strive to reach great heights by matching physical strength with mental strength. The remarkable militancy which has taken possession of Negro society need not lead us to the distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers have realized, as evidenced by their presence here today, that their destiny is closely connected with our destiny and their freedom is inevitably connected with our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And once we start moving, we must swear that we will move forward. We can't turn back. There are those who ask those dedicated to the cause of civil rights: "When will you calm down?" We will never rest until our bodies, heavy with the weariness of long journeys, can find lodgings in roadside motels and city inns. We will not rest as long as the Negro's main mode of movement remains moving from a small ghetto to a large one. We will not rest until the Negro in Mississippi can't vote and the Negro in New York thinks he has nothing to vote for. No, we have no reason to rest, and we will never rest until justice begins to flow like waters, and righteousness becomes like a mighty stream. I do not forget that many of you came here after going through great trials and suffering. Some of you have come here straight from cramped prison cells. Some of you have come from areas where you have been subjected to storms of persecution and police brutality for your desire for freedom. You have become veterans of creative suffering. Keep working, believing that undeserved suffering will be redeemed.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that one way or another this situation can and will change. Let us not suffer in the valley of despair.
I tell you today, my friends, that despite the difficulties and disappointments, I have a dream. This is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream. I have a dream that the day will come when our nation will rise up and live up to the true meaning of its motto: “We hold it to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that the day will come in the red hills of Georgia when the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveholders can sit together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that the day will come when even the state of Mississippi, a desolate state sweltering under the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that the day will come when my four children will live in a country where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by what they are.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that the day will come when in the state of Alabama, whose governor now claims to interfere in the internal affairs of the state and defy the laws passed by Congress, a situation will be created in which little black boys and girls can join hands with little white boys and girls and walk together like brothers and sisters.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that a day will come when all the lowlands will rise, all the hills and mountains will fall, the rough places will be turned into plains, the crooked places will become straight, the greatness of the Lord will appear before us and all mortals will be convinced of this together.
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith, we can hew the stone of hope from the mountain of despair. With this faith we can transform the discordant voices of our people into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we can work together, pray together, fight together, go to prison together, defend freedom together, knowing that one day we will be free. This will be the day when all God's children will be able to sing, giving new meaning to these words: "My country, it is I you, sweet land of freedom, it is I who sing your praises. Land where my fathers died, land of pilgrims' pride, let freedom ring with all mountain slopes." And if America is to be a great country, this must happen.
Let freedom ring from the tops of the stunning hills of New Hampshire!
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York!
Let freedom ring from the high Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Colorado Rockies!
Let freedom ring from the curved mountain peaks of California!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain in Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and knoll of the Mississippi!
Let freedom ring from every mountain slope!
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we can hasten the coming of that day when all God's children, black and white, Jew and Gentile, Protestant and Catholic, can join hands and sing the words of the old Negro spiritual hymn: "Free at last! Free at last! Thanks to the almighty Lord, we are free at last!"