“The Negro and the American Dream,” Emancipation Day Address Delivered at Municipal Auditorium
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: January 2, 1961?
Location: Savannah, Ga.
Genre: Speech
Topic: Brown v. Board of Education
Student movements
Details
In the spring of 1960, African Americans in Savannah, Georgia, began a boycott of the white downtown merchants to protest their segregationist practices.1 Speaking before a capacity crowd in honor of the ninety-eighth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, King calls on protesters to remain nonviolent as they continue their “program of economic withdrawal.”2 He compares the black struggle for equality with that of Jews, who have “proven that inner determination can often break through the outer shackles of circumstance.” Challenging America to hold true to its ideals, King maintains that black Americans do not want to “upset the social structure” or “dominate the nation politically,” but simply “want to be free.” King concludes that one day “all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants, will be able to join hands and sing with meaning, ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last.’”3 The following transcript is taken from an audio recording.
Mr. Chairman, and to all of the distinguished platform guests, ladies and gentlemen.4 I would like first to say how very delighted and happy I am to be here today, to be in this community. And I want to express my personal appreciation to the Emancipation [words inaudible] Reverend Stell for his very kind and generous introduction.5 And one day I hope I will be able to live up to all of the wonderful things he said about me. It’s good to see all of you and to somehow reaffirm and renew friendships and fellowships with men that I have known from [word inaudible] for years. I shouldn’t say, of course, for many, many years because I’m not that old, but of course a few years. [laughter] I see here many of my colleagues in the ministry that I have known and worked with throughout various [words inaudible] organizations across the country. And it is a real pleasure and privilege to be here with all of my good friends. To be in the home of my good friend Reverend Curtis Jackson and his lovely wife is also a great pleasure.6
And I tell you it’s a real inspiration to come to Savannah, because I have kept up with you and your activities. Let’s hope they only last a few months. And certainly you have made us proud. [word inaudible] to a real degree you have inspired the people of Atlanta. And it is commendable that you have stuck together so long and that you have remained united for the great cause. Your program of economic withdrawal is something that needs to be mentioned and needs to be duplicated in many, many places. And I can only say to you, “Keep up the good work and stay together and continue the struggle.”
Now, I know sometimes it seems to be a long, hard struggle, and you wonder when things will open as you desire. It’s something like going down a long, dark, and desolate corridor, and you constantly seek an exit sign. And it seems that it doesn’t come. But never forget that all of our dreams must come through a persistent and consistent struggle. I’m reminded of Montgomery, Alabama, for instance, when we were struggling to break down the shackles and the great [word inaudible] from the shackles that cause segregation. And then at that moment we wondered how long. You know, we walked that city 381 days. And I’m here to say to you, this afternoon, that after 381 days, after the Negro citizens of Montgomery were willing to substitute tired feet for tired souls, and after they were willing to walk the streets of that city for all of those months, the buses of Montgomery, Alabama, were finally integrated, and today Negro citizens can ride anywhere on the buses that they want to. [applause]
And so don’t give up, but keep going. And I cannot pass on without saying just a word concerning this great student movement which has engulfed our Southland. To my mind, this is one of the great, if not the greatest, development that has taken place in the struggle for civil rights in our United States. These students have felt the palpitation of purpose. They have taken our deep groans and passionate yearnings for freedom and filtered them in their own souls and fashioned them into a creative protest which is an effort known all over our nation. For all of these months they have moved in a uniquely meaningful order, imparting light and heat to distant satellites. And as a result of their nonviolent, peaceful struggle, they have been able to integrate lunch counters in more than a hundred and twelve cities. It is no overstatement to say that this is revolutionary, and I’m convinced that when the history books are written in future generations, they will have to look back and call this student movement one of the most significant epics of our day. [applause]
So I know you will continue to support the student movement and you will continue to support the movement that is taking place in this community. And I could not come here also without saying a word concerning the great work that has been done by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People under the leadership of my good friend Mr. Law and Mr. Williams in this community.7 [applause] There can be no gainsaying of the fact that he is one of the most dedicated and one of the most resourceful leaders that we have in the South today. [applause]
Now, this is the day that we pause to celebrate a great event in our history. We think of the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the great and significant documents in our nation. And as we pause on this day to think of emancipation, I would like to use as a subject from which to speak “The Negro and the American dream.”
My friends, whether you realize it or not, America is essentially a dream—a dream yet unfulfilled but nevertheless a dream—a great dream. It is a dream of a land where men of all races, of all colors and all creeds will be able to live together as brothers. The substance of the dream is expressed in these sublime words, words [lifted to?] cosmic proportions: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This is the dream.
And at the very center of this dream we notice an amazing universalism, for it does not say “some men are created equal,” but it says “all men [Audience:] (Yes, Yes) are created equal.” [applause] (That’s right) It doesn’t say “all white men,” but it says “all men,” which includes black men. [applause] It does not say “all the Gentiles,” but it says “all men,” which includes Jews. (Yes) [applause] Not even says “all Protestants,” but it says “all men,” which includes Catholics. (Yes) [applause]
But there is something else that you notice at the center of that dream, something that ultimately distinguishes democracy from any system of government which makes the state an end within itself. It affirms that there are certain basic rights (Yes) that are neither confirmed by nor derived from the state. In order to discover where they came from, we must go back behind the dim mists of eternity. They are God’s gifts. (Preach, Preach, Preach) [applause]
Very seldom, if ever, in the history of the world has a socio-political document expressed in more eloquent, profound, and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality. For this dream reminds us that every man (Yes, every man) is the heir of a legacy of dignity. (Yes) It’s a great dream.
Ever since our founding fathers dreamed this dream—to use a big word that the psychologists use—America has been something of a schizophrenic personality tragically divided against itself. (Yes) On the one hand, she has proudly professed the principles of democracy. And on the other hand she has sadly practiced the very opposite of those principles. Slavery and segregation have always been strange paradoxes in a nation founded on the principle that all men are created equal. [applause] (That’s right) More than ever before, America is challenged to bring the ideals and principles of this dream into full realization. My friends, the shape of the world today does not permit America the luxury of an anemic democracy. The price that America must pay for the continued oppression of the Negro is the price of its own destruction. (Yes)
We look over the world, we see new nations coming into being, and they are watching. (Yes) In 1957 when Mrs. King and I journeyed over Africa to attend the independence celebration of the new nation of Ghana, there were only seven independent nations in the whole of Africa.8 And just last month I went back to Africa. I went to Nigeria to attend the independence, I mean the inauguration of the new governor-general of Nigeria, Governor-General Azikiwe.9 As I got off the plane in Africa I thought of the fact that today there are twenty-seven independent countries in Africa.10 Within less than three years, more than eighteen countries have received their independence in Africa. (Yeah)
They are looking over here. The wind of change is blowing all about, all through Africa and Asia. They want to know what we are doing about democracy, and they are making it clear that racism and colonialism must go. (Yes) I tell you that the hour is late. The crop of destiny is peeking out. We must act now before it’s too late. It is trite but nevertheless profoundly true that if America is to remain a first-class nation, she can no longer have second-class citizens. (That’s right) [sustained applause]
So, there is the need today people of goodwill all over this nation to rise up, seek to fulfill the great dream of America. If we fail to do it at this hour, we may well lose our moral, our political stature in the world. And those people who are working to bring into being the dream of democracy are not the agitators. They are not the dangerous people in America. They are not the un-American people. (Well) They are people who are doing more for America than anybody that we can point to. And I submit to you that it may well be that the Negro is God’s instrument (Yeah) to save the soul of America. [applause]
So many forces are working in our nation to scar the dream, and we are challenged to bring this dream into its full realization. Now, what are some of things that we must do as a people to remind our nation over and over again that it must bring this dream into reality? First, my friends, we must continue, courageously, to challenge the system of segregation. (Yes) Segregation is still the Negro’s burden and America’s shame. (Yes) [applause] Therefore, we must not rest until segregation is removed from every area of our nation’s life. Segregation—whether at lunch counters, whether in public schools, whether in public parks, or whether in the Christian church—is a cancerous disease which must be removed from the body politic before our democratic health can be realized. (Yes) [applause] Yes, segregation is nothing but a new form of slavery covered up with certain niceties of complexity. [gap in tape] [applause] We must make it palpably clear that we cannot settle for all of the delaying tactics and the gradualism that has engulfed our Southland. For gradualism is little more than an escapism and a do-nothingism which ends up in stand-stillism. [applause]
On May seventeenth 1954, the Supreme Court of our nation rendered a great decision.11 That decision said, in substance, that the old Plessy doctrine of 1896 must go, that separate facilities are inherently unequal, and that to segregate a child on the basis of his race is to deny that child equal protection of the law.12 That was six years ago. You know that today only six percent of the Negro children of the South and the border states are attending integrated schools. And most of these are in the border states, in the District of Columbia, in Kentucky and Missouri, in West Virginia. And we see, my friends, that six percent—actually, when you see what it means—it means that we have integrated on the basis of one percent a year. Now, if you keep on following that, that means that you have ninety-four percent of the Negro children of the South still attending segregated schools. And if we keep on moving at the pace we are moving now, it would take ninety-four more years to get there. [applause] I submit to America that we don’t have that long. (No, No) I submit at this hour that we must get up and move now. (Move now) Somehow, we must come to see that this is what is right, and this is what must be.
In our own state of Georgia, in Atlanta, the schools are to be integrated next September. The governor, the legislature are saying that they are not going to comply with this, and they are threatening to close the schools.13 [word inaudible] we must make it clear in all good conscience that no threat of closing schools will cause us for one moment to cease in our determination to have our Constitutional rights in the state of Georgia. [sustained applause]
I know it’s hard sometimes for at least the schoolteachers to face this realistically. But I say it with as firm a point of view as I can say that we must make it clear that the rush to erect beautiful school buildings for Negroes to maintain segregation will not satisfy us. [sustained applause] Somehow, we must get it over that we will never sell our birthright of freedom for a mess of separate but equal. [applause] We are engaged in a destiny-making moment in history not for ourselves alone but to save the soul of America. And in order to do that we must continue courageously to challenge the system of segregation.
There is a second thing that we must do, my friends, which is just as important as the first. We must make full and constructive use of the freedom we already possess. We must not use our oppression as an excuse for laziness. (No) History has proven that inner determination can often break through the outer shackles of circumstance. Someone mentioned the Jews earlier, and I think we have a great example here. For years, Jews have been forced to walk through the long and desolate night of oppression. This did not keep them from rising up from the dense cloud-filled nights of affliction to new and blazing stars of inspiration.
So, being a Jew did not keep [George Frideric] Handel from lifting his visions of high heaven and merging with the inspiration to leave for unfolding generations the [broad?] thunders and the gentle sighings of a great Messiah. (Yes)
Being a Jew did not keep [Albert] Einstein from challenging an axiom and using his genius-packed mind to leave for the lofty insights of science a theory of relativity.
Being Jews did not keep Isaiah and Jeremiah, Amos and Hosea from rising up amid religious idolatry and unjust power structures (That’s right) to declare the eternal word of God and the never-ceasing necessity of being obedient to His will. (Yes)
And I say this afternoon that being a Negro should not keep us from making a contribution, continual contribution, to the life of this nation. (Yes) We already have numerous and inspiring examples of Negroes who have proven that human nature cannot be catalogued (No), that we need not wait until the day of full emancipation the day we make a creative contribution. From an old slave’s cabin in Virginia fields, Booker T. Washington rose up to the stature of one of America’s greatest leaders. He lived of course in Alabama, and darkness fled. From the red hills of Gordon County, Georgia, and iron foundry of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Roland Hayes rose up to be one of the best singers of the world and carried his melodious voice to the palace of King George V and the mansion of the Queen Mother of Spain. From a poverty-stricken area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marian Anderson rose up to be the world’s greatest contralto (Yeah) so that Tuscanini could declare that a voice like this comes only once in a century. And Sibelius of Finland had to cry out, “My roof is too low for such a voice.”14 [applause]
[word inaudible] oppressive circumstances George Washington Carver rose up and carved for himself an impenetrable niche in the halls of time. Yes, there was a star in the sky of female leadership (Yes): Mary McLeod Bethune reached up and grabbed it and allowed it to shine. [applause] There is a star in the diplomatic sky: Ralph Bunche, the grandson of a slave preacher, reached up and grabbed it and allowed it to shine with all of its beautiful outpour of light. There is a star in the athletic sky: Then came Joe Louis with his educated fists (Yes) [applause], Jesse Owens with his fleet and dashing feet, Jackie Robinson with his powerful bat and his calm spirit, and all of these [words inaudible] who proved to us that we need not wait until the day of full emancipation before we make a contribution.15 [applause]
Now, in the eyes they have justified a conviction of the poet,
Fleecy locks and black complexion (Yes)
Cannot [halt nature’s claim?];
Skin may differ, but affection
Dwells in black and white the same.
Were I so tall to, I could reach the pole
Or could grasp the ocean at its span,
I must be measured by my soul. (Yes)
The mind is the standard of the man.16 [applause]
And now to help America realize its dream, we must do another thing. We must make a determined effort to achieve the ballot. (All right) I am convinced more than ever before that one of the most decisive steps that the Negro can take at this hour is that short walk to the voting booth. [applause] Now, in many communities and many counties and rural areas, in many instances we know that there are problems against our resistance, and many conniving methods are being used to keep Negroes from registering. We must also remember that we as Negroes don’t register as much as we should in places where we have no difficulties. The only barrier are our own. [applause] Now I urge you today in Savannah, I urge our fellow voters of Georgia, all over the South, all over the United States to go out with a determined effort to achieve the ballot. I urge every church in this community to establish a social and political action committee and make it a part of this 1961 church program to have every member in that church registered before the end of this year.17 [applause] There are five million eligible Negro voters in the South, and we only have 1,300,000 registered. We have a long, long way to go.
And we’ve got to get up and go, because I tell you the politicians listen to votes [laughter], and when they know that they have their ballot in your hand (Yes), they will talk with you in a nice manner [words inaudible] was before. [We’ve?] learned this reality more than ever before in this election: the power of the vote. Mr. Kennedy is President of the United States today because of the Negro vote. [applause] My friends, a few days ago we must not hesitate to remind Mr. Kennedy that the Negro vote helped get him elected, and we expect him to do something to remove the weight of segregation from our shoulders.18 [applause]
Another thing that people who are seeking to bring this dream into being must do, another thing they must realize is this: that in order to gain freedom there must be a willingness to suffer and sacrifice. Freedom is not free. It must be brought forth with the highest height of pain and sacrifice. And I think there are too many among us who want the fruits of integration but who are not willing to go through the sacrifice necessary to challenge the roots of segregation. [applause]
And I just think of what many men and women in other nations have had to go through to gain their freedom. Last year Mrs. King and I journeyed over that great country known as India.19 Spent several weeks there with the people, the wonderful people, of that very country. We hardly met a single person who had not been to jail during the independence struggle. Never forget that Mohandas K. Gandhi spent twelve years of his life in jail. Never forget that the man who is the head of the second most populous nation in the world today, Jawaharlal Nehru, spent fourteen years of his life in jail. (That’s right) Never forget that Prime Minister [Kwame] Nkrumah was elected prime minister of the Gold Coast while he was in jail.
And here we are afraid even to stand up and be counted for what we believe. [applause] Unless we come to see this, we will postpone our freedom almost too long. We must get this over to every section of the Negro community. We must rise above our fears now; there is nothing to be afraid of. (No) If you believe, and you know that the cause for which you stand is right, you will never have to face anything—you’ll face it with a humble smile on your face (Yes) ’cause you know that all of the eternity stands with you; the angels stand by. (Yes) And you know that, because you know that you’re right. This cause in which we are engaged is a righteous cause. (Yes) So let us get up and fight the fight.
That could mean going down in our pockets, giving big money for freedom. We waste too much money on frivolities and other things. Now it’s time to give it for freedom. Any Negro who is not a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People should be ashamed of himself. [applause]
All I am saying is that we will not gain our freedom on a silver platter. It will not be handed out like that. We must suffer and sacrifice for it. And this means that those who have had the good fortune of getting education and the good fortune of accumulating a little money must get in this struggle. Too often the middle class, the Negro middle class, stood aside with the sort of philosophy, “I’ve got mine, so it doesn’t matter what happens.” [applause] No one individual in the Negro or white race will be free until we are all free. [applause]
So, we must get together, and we must remind our white brothers, because sometimes they don’t know, but we must remind them that these few Uncle Toms who sell their souls do not speak for the Negro. [applause] All I’m saying to you is that we must go out now and remind America that, that we want to be free. (Yes) We are not [word inaudible] making excessive demands; we just want to be free. This must be our message for the new year and the years ahead: we want to be free. We are not seeking to upset the social structure of the nation; we simply want to be free. We are not seeking to dominate the nation politically; we just want to be free. We are not dangerous rabble-rousers, or professional agitators; we simply want to be free.
So now, we must say to America, “America, we’ve been loyal to you. (Yes) We haven’t produced traitors, America; we’ve been loyal to you in every situation. (Yes) America, we have not turned to some sort of ideology to solve our problems.” There have been those who have said that our movement came into being or was inspired by Communism, but we must remind those who would say it, even if it’s a former president of the United States, that it is an insult to our intelligence (Yes) to tell us that a man is standing on our neck.20 Mr. Khrushchev has to come over from Russia to remind us all.21 [applause]
Oh yes, America, Communism is not our way of life. We reject its metaphysical basis; we reject its message; we reject its totalitarianism. (Yes)
But America, we’re simply saying now, “We want to be free.” (That’s right) [applause] Yes, America we’ve been with you when your security was threatened. Your security, America—our sons sailed the bloody seas of two world wars. Your security, America—our sons died in the trenches of France, in the foxholes of Germany, on the beachheads of Italy, on the islands of Japan. (Yes) Now America, we are simply saying, “We want to be free.” [applause] This must be our message. (Yes) We stand to save the souls of our nation.
There is another final thing that we must do. We must be committed to a method that is consistent with the noble end that we seek. (Yes) We must be sure that our method is nonviolent to the core. (Yes) There are three ways that oppressed people deal with their oppression. One way is to just sit down and accept it. This has happened through history. Some people resign themselves to the fate of oppression and they feel that that’s the way to deal with it. They become conditioned to it; they adjust to it. And [then they are just like this man?] who was playing his guitar in Atlanta—he was just playing and started singing, “Been down so long that down don’t bother me.”22 [applause]
That is the way. We will now have to respect [for?] ourselves, or our white brothers will not respect us if we [hand back?] this power to sit down and do nothing. (That’s right) Noncooperation with evil is as a much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.23 Don’t let anybody fool you: we’re not trying to free ourselves alone. (No) If we cease to stand up, be counted, we are not our brother’s keeper. We’re seeking to free the white man. Why, I tell you the system of segregation puts him in more slavery than it puts the Negro. [applause] Anybody who’s a slave there, anybody who’s a slave to prejudice, anybody who’s a slave to fear—and many white people are, who really believe in integration but they’re afraid to say it. We’re seeking to free these people. (Yes sir) So I say to you that it isn’t moral to sit down because at that point we refuse to be our brother’s keeper. (Yes)
Now, the other way that people use so often is to rise up against the oppressor with a rolling hatred and physical violence. They’ve lived with the problem and dealt with it, and they feel that the only way they can deal with it is somehow hate the opponent and arm themselves so that they can use violence against the opponent. (Well) But I submit to you that this isn’t the way. Violence often brings about temporary victory, but it never brings about permanent peace. (No) It ends up creating many more social problems than it solves. There is still a voice crying through the vista of time, saying to every potential recruit to put up your sword. (Yes) History is replete with the bleak bones of nations. History is crowded with the records of communities that failed to follow this command. (Yes)
So I must remind you that there is another way. You need not sit down and do nothing. You need not rise up with arms. There is another way (Yes), a way as old as the insights of Jesus of Nazareth (Yes) and as modern as the techniques of Mohandas K. Gandhi, a way as old as Jesus looking into the faces of men and women of this generation saying, “Love them. (Yeah) Bless them that curse you. Pray for them that spitefully use you.”24 (Yes) There is another way (Yes), a way as old as Jesus saying, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”25 There is another way (Yes), a way as old as Jesus saying, “Turn the other cheek.”26 (Yes) We realize that turning the other cheek didn’t always mean that you would get along all right in terms of the physical structure. It may mean that you’ll get scarred up. It may mean that your house will get bombed. It may mean you get shot at. You may get stabbed in the process, but Jesus would say, in substance, that it is better to go through life with a scarred-up body than a scarred-up soul.27 [applause]
There is another way. (Another way, Yes) God grant that as we move on in our nation (Well), God grant that we speak to remind America and our white brothers that this system is evil and that we want to be as brothers. God grant that we will use the proper method. (Yes) It will lead us to the point that we will not only achieve freedom for ourselves, but we will somehow change the structure of society. (Yes) It will give us the proper attitude in the process. I am convinced, my friends, that the problem we face down here in Georgia and all over the South is not only tension between black men and white men. (No) That isn’t it. It is the tension between justice and injustice (Yes), between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. (Well)
So, our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. (Yes) Now, sometimes we have to boycott him, and that’s necessary. Sometimes, we must boycott these stores, and we have to do it to remind them that just as they respect our dollar, they must respect our friendship. [applause] But even if we boycott, we do it with a loving spirit, because we somehow know that a boycott is not an end within itself (No), merely a means to awaken a sense of shame with the opponent, within the opponent. But the end is reconciliation.
The end is the creation of the beloved community. (Yes) This is why I have to disagree with those who’ve gotten weary along the way in our race, who are now saying we must adopt a policy of black supremacy.28 (Well) I say to you this afternoon if this becomes our philosophy, it becomes a dangerous one, for black supremacy is as dangerous as white supremacy. (Yes) [applause] God is not interested [applause], God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race (Yes) and the creation of a society where all men live together as brothers, and every man will respect the dignity and the worth of human personality. This is what God wants. (Yes, Yes)
So, our aim must not be to rise from a position of disadvantage to one of advantage [while subverting justice?] but to achieve democracy for everybody. (Yes) I believe that if we will follow this method, we will help America bring the dream into being. (Yes)
Now, some of you are asking now, I know, “How long will it take, brother King? [laughter] We are tired. We are weary along the way. It’s been another long time.” For years and years, our forefathers had to live amid the bondage and the tragedy of slavery. Then we’ve been inflicted with segregation, and he still wonders, “How long do I have to wait before the dream comes into being?” Somebody’s crying out this afternoon, “How long shall prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne? How long will the rich dominate the poor and the strong trample over the weak?” Somebody’s asking, “When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of our cities, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.” Somebody else is asking, “When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely life, plucked from weary souls the manacles of fear and the chains of death?”29 How long (Yes, How long, How long) will truth be crucified and justice dead?
I come to my conclusion by saying to you: “Not long.” I can’t give you an exact date, but not long. (Not long) Go back, if you don’t believe me, to the sands of Egypt. (Yes) Watch the Pharaohs as they hold God’s children in the clutches of their political power. Not long after that, watch the Red Sea as it opens, watch the children of God move on out of Egypt. Go back if you will. (Preach) Watch Caesar as he occupies the palace (Yes) and Christ as he occupies the throne (Yes), but not long after that, that same Christ rises up to split history into AD and BC (Yes) so that even the life of Caesar must be dated by his name. (Yes) How long? Not long. (Not long) [applause]
So, children, don’t get weary.30 There is something in this universe that justifies Carlyle in saying, “No lie can live forever.”31 (Yeah) There is something right here in the course of cosmos that justifies William Cullen Bryant in saying, “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.”32 And there is something right here in this universe which justifies James Russell Lowell in saying, “Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—/Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown/Standeth God within the shadows, keeping watch above his own.”33 (Yes) So, down in Montgomery, Alabama, we can walk and never get weary. (Yes) [applause]
So, this is our hope. Let us work together, pray together, picket together, boycott together, keeping on the struggling (Yes) so that America will be truly America. (Yes) Then we can sing the new meanings of song [everywhere?]: “My country, ’tis of thee (Yes), Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing; Yes, land where my fathers died (Yes), Land of the Pilgrims’ pride (Yes), From every mountain-side (Yes), Let freedom ring.”
And that must become literally true. [laughter] Freedom must ring from every mountainside if America’s dream is to be real. (Yes) So, let it ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire (Yes), and let it ring from the mighty Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. (Yes) Let it ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let it ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that. If freedom is to be real, democracy is to be real, if the American dream is to be real, freedom must ring from every mountainside. So let it ring from Lookout Mountain in Tennessee. (Yes) Let it ring from every mountain and hill in Alabama. Let it ring from every hill and molehill in Mississippi. (Yes) Let it ring from Stone Mountain in Georgia. From all the mountainsides, let freedom ring. And when that happens, all of God’s children—black men and white men (Yes), Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants (Well)—will be able to join hands and sing with meaning, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty. We are free at last!”34 [sustained applause]
1. On 16 March 1960, Savannah students requested service at over five different lunch counters in local stores without success. This led to a fifteen-month boycott of the stores, with over approximately one hundred protesters arrested and an estimated five stores declaring bankruptcy. In July 1961, local citizens agreed to desegregate the lunch counters in exchange for ending the boycott (“Lunch Bias Protests Hit in Savannah,” Atlanta Daily World, 17 March 1960; “Savannah Lowers Lunch Counter Racial Barriers after 15-Month Protest,” Atlanta Daily World, 9 July 1961).
2. Emancipation Association, Program, “Emancipation Celebration,” 2 January 1961; “King Asks Non-Violent Integration,” Savannah News, 3 January 1961. Three days earlier King made a similar address in Chattanooga, Tennessee (“The Negro and the American Dream,” Address delivered at Memorial Auditorium, 30 December 1960). Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on 22 September 1862; it went into effect on 1 January 1863.
3. In April 1957, King used a similar refrain when he addressed a freedom rally in St. Louis (“A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations,” 10 April 1957, in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol. 4: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957–December 1958, ed. Clayborne Carson, Susan Carson, Adrienne Clay, Virginia Shadron, Kieran Taylor [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000], p. 179).
4. F. D. Jaudon (1899–1972), pastor of Saint Philip Monumental AME Church, was president of the Emancipation Association Committee.
5. L. Scott Stell (1911–1985) was a minister at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Savannah and vice president of the Emancipation Association Committee.
6. Curtis J. Jackson (1922–2005), a graduate of Morehouse College, was pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Atlanta from 1951–1957 before moving to Savannah. King refers to Jackson’s wife, Marion Briggs Jackson.
7. King refers to W. W. Law (1923–2002), president of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP from 1950–1976, and Hosea Williams (1926–2000), vice president of the Savannah NAACP and president of the Chatham County Crusade for Voters. Williams later became a member of the SCLC executive board.
8. As of 1957 the following nations in Africa were independent: Liberia, South Africa, Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Ghana. For more on King’s trip to Ghana, see Introduction in Papers 4:7–10.
9. King was in Lagos from 14–18 November 1960 to attend the inauguration of Nnamdi Azikiwe, who served as governor-general from 1960–1963 and as president of the Republic of Nigeria from 1963–1966 (see Azikiwe to King, 26 October 1960, in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol. 5: Threshold of a New Decade, January 1959–December 1960, ed. Clayborne Carson, Tenisha Armstrong, Susan Carson, Adrienne Clay, Kieran Taylor (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005), pp. 533–534).
10. As of 1960 the following nations in Africa were independent: Cameroon, Togo, Senegal, Mali, Madagascar, Zaire, Somalia, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Nigeria, and Mauritania.
11. King refers to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
12. King refers to Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).
13. In June 1959, Judge Frank Hooper ruled in Calhoun v. Members of Board of Education, City of Atlanta, 188 F. Supp. 401 (N.D. Ga. 1959) that Atlanta must desegregate its schools by September 1960, though the deadline was later extended to September 1961. In response, the state legislature and Georgia governor S. Ernest Vandiver threatened to shut down the public schools rather than comply with the court order (“Georgia Is Easing Pupil Segregation,” New York Times, 28 January 1961).
14. Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) founded the Tuskegee Institute. Roland Hayes (1887–1977) was a well-known lyric tenor. Marian Anderson (1897–1993) was an internationally acclaimed opera singer. Arturo Toscanini (1867–1957) was an Italian conductor who led the New York Philharmonic‐Symphony Orchestra. Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) was a Finnish composer.
15. George Washington Carver (1864?–1943) was a scientist particularly famed for his agricultural research. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955) was a pioneering educator who founded the National Council of Negro Women. Ralph J. Bunche (1904–1971) was a United Nations diplomat who in 1950 became the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Joe Louis (1914–1981) held the world heavyweight championship from 1937 to 1949. Jesse Owens (1913–1980) was a track and field star who won four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. Jackie Robinson (1919–1972) was the first African American to play modern major league baseball.
16. For the first four lines, cf. “The Negro’s Complaint” (1788) by William Cowper. For the remaining lines, cf. “False Greatness,” Horae Lyricae (1706) by Isaac Watts.
17. King established a Social and Political Action Committee at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in 1954 and one at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1960. Members of both churches were required to be registered voters (King, “Recommendations to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church for the Fiscal Year 1954–1955,” 5 September 1954, in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol. 2: Rediscovering Precious Values, July 1951–November 1955, ed. Clayborne Carson, Ralph E. Luker, Penny A. Russell, Peter Holloran [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005], p. 290; King, Sr., and King, Jr., “Recommendations to the Ebenezer Baptist Church for the Fiscal Year 1960–1961,” February–March 1960, in Papers 5:379).
18. At a December 1960 rally in observance of the Emancipation Proclamation, King called on president-elect Kennedy to sign an executive order outlawing segregation: “It is pretty conclusive now that the Negro played a decisive role in electing the president of the United States and maybe for the first time we came to see the power of the ballot and what the ballot can do. Now we must remind Mr. Kennedy that we helped him to get in the White House. We must remind Mr. Kennedy that we are expecting him to use the whole weight of his office to remove the ugly weight of segregation from the shoulders of our nation” (King, “The Negro and the American Dream,” Address delivered at the Memorial Auditorium, 30 December 1960). For more on King’s calls for a second Emancipation Proclamation, see King, “Equality Now: The President Has the Power,” 4 February 1961, King, Press Release, Statement Calling for Executive Order Declaring Segregation Illegal, 5 June 1961, King, Press Conference after Meeting with John F. Kennedy, 16 October 1961, and King, Abernathy, and Anderson to John F. Kennedy, 17 December 1961, pp. 139–150, pp. 243–245, pp. 308–311, and pp. 349–350, respectively.
19. For more on King’s 1959 trip to India, see Introduction in Papers 5:2–12.
20. After former president Harry S. Truman claimed in a news conference in Ithaca, New York, that the student sit-in movement was engineered by Communists, King responded: “the sit-ins were not inspired by Communism. They were inspired by the passionate yearning and the timeless longing for freedom and human dignity on the part of a people who have for years been trampled over by the iron feet of oppression” (King to Harry S. Truman, 19 April 1960, in Papers 5:438).
21. In a speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York the previous September, Khrushchev questioned having the U.N. headquartered in a country where representatives from African and Asian countries were subject to discrimination (“Text of Premier Khrushchev’s Speech Before the United Nations General Assembly,” New York Times, 24 September 1960).
22. Blues singer Ishman Bracey’s 1928 recording of “Trouble Hearted Blues” included the following lyric: “Down so long, down don’t worry me.” Billie Holiday’s 1954 recording of “Stormy Blues” had similar lyrics: “I’ve been down so long that down don’t worry me.”
23. Cf. M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha (Ahmadabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1951), p. 165: “Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as co-operation with good”; see also Gandhi, “The Poet’s Anxiety,” Young India, 1 June 1921.
24. Cf. Matthew 5:44.
25. Cf. Matthew 7:12.
26. Cf. Matthew 5:39.
27. Cf. Matthew 16:26. King’s home was bombed on 30 January 1956, and he was stabbed on 20 September 1958 by a mentally deranged woman while signing copies of Stride Toward Freedom in a Harlem department store. For more on the bombing and King’s stabbing, see Introduction in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., vol 3: Birth of a New Age, December 1955–December 1956, ed. Clayborne Carson, Susan Carson, Stewart Burns, Peter Holloran, Dana L. H. Powell (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997), pp. 10–11, and Papers 4:34–35.
28. King may be referring to the Nation of Islam, a black separatist organization founded by Elijah Muhammad.
29. J. H. Jackson, “The Last Frontier of Democracy,” 1957, in The Story of The National Baptists, Owen D. Pelt and Ralph Lee Smith (New York: Vantage Press, 1960), pp. 232–233: “How long must prejudice blind the minds of men, darken understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne? O Spirit of Freedom how long must there be continued man’s inhumanity to man, the domination of the strong over the weak, and the conquest of the poor by the rich, and the slaughter of the innocent by the guilty. And when will wounded Justice, now prostrate in the streets of cities, be lifted from the dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men? Spirit of Freedom, child of destiny, and daughter of love, hold high your torch of hope in this dark hour of despair, and push your guiding star out upon the nocturnal bosom of this gloomy night, and pluck from weary souls the chains of fear and the manacles of death, and open wide the prison house of cursed discrimination and let God’s people go.”
30. Cf. Galatians 6:9.
31. King paraphrases Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution (1837), vol. 1, book 6, chap. 3: “No lie you can speak or act but it will come, after longer or shorter circulation, like a bill drawn on Nature’s Reality, and be presented there for payments—with the answer, No effects.”
32. Cf. William Cullen Bryant, “The Battlefield” (1839), stanza 9.
33. Cf. James Russell Lowell, “The Present Crisis” (1844), stanza 8.
34. King’s language mirrors that of Archibald J. Carey, a Chicago preacher and civil rights activist, who on 8 July 1952, addressed the Republican National Convention using similar language: “That’s exactly what we mean—from every mountain side, let freedom ring. Not only from the Green Mountains and the White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire; not only from the Catskills of New York; but from the Ozarks in Arkansas, from the Stone Mountain in Georgia, from the Great Smokies of Tennessee and from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia—Not only for the minorities of the United States, but for the persecuted of Europe, for the rejected of Asia, for the disfranchised of South Africa and for the disinherited of all the earth—may the Republican Party, under God, from every mountain side, LET FREEDOM RING!” (Carey, Address delivered to the Republican National Convention, 8 July 1952).
Source: MLKEC-INP, Martin Luther King, Jr. Estate Collection.