I say to you today, my friends, 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. 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, 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, and every hill and
mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be 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. And this will be the day. This will be the day when all of God’s children will
be able to sing with new meaning, “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I
sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims’ 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 snow-capped 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, and 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.”
1. What does Martin Luther King Jr. mean when he said, “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.’ ”?
2. How did he want his four children to be judged by others?
3. Why was he asking for a change?
4. What criticisms did he tell about America?
5. From your perspective, has King’s dream been fulfilled? Explain.
6. How did the King’s speech influence the way the Americans view the world?
7. Have you been discriminated because of your physical attributes like your skin
color? What have you done?
8. What unchanging values of African Americans are reflected from the speech?
9. When can you say that someone enjoys freedom?
10.In your opinion, to what extent can freedom be enjoyed by the citizens of a
country?