[audience applause]
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.
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.
[audience cheering and applause]
I have a dream
that one day on the red hills of Georgia
the 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.
[applause]
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.
[cheering and applause]
I have dream that one day every valley
shall be exalted and every hill
and mountain shall be made low,
the rough places will be made 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, and 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 Pilgrim's pride,
from every mountainside,
let freedom ring!'
And if America is to be a great nation,
this must become true.
And 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 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!
[cheering and applause]