There will be neither rest nor tranquillity in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. So we've come to cash this cheque - a cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad cheque which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.' But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of colour are concerned. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of 'Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.'

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.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a cheque. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.Īnd so we've come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. America has given the Negro people a bad cheque which has come back marked 'insufficient funds'īut 100 years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

I have a dream speech text