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http://www.mlkonline.net/speeches.htmlWe Shall Overcome
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress:
I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy. I
urge every member of
both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section
of this country, to
join me in that cause.
At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point
in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So
it was a century ago at
Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There, longsuffering men and
women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally
assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed.
There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for selfsatisfaction
in the long denial of equal
rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for
hope and for faith
in our democracy in what is happening here tonight. For the cries of pain
and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all
the majesty of this great government
the government of the greatest nation on earth. Our
mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice,
to serve man.
In our time we have come to live with
the moments of great crisis. Our lives have been
marked with debate about great issues issues
of war and peace, issues of prosperity and
depression. But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret
heart of America itself.
Rarely are we met with a challenge,
not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our
security, but rather to the values, and the purposes, and the meaning of our beloved nation.
The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue.
And should we defeat every enemy, and should
we double our wealth and conquer the stars,
and still be unequal to
this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. For with
a country as with a person, "What is a man profited,
if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
There is no Negro problem. There is no
Southern problem. There is no Northern problem.
There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans not
as
Democrats or Republicans. We are met here as
Americans to solve that problem.
This was the first nation
in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great
phrases of that purpose still sound in every American
heart, North and South: "All men are
created equal," "government by consent of the governed," "give me liberty or give me death."
Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name
Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand
there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.
Those words are a promise to every citizen that
he shall share in the dignity of man. This
dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions. it cannot be found in
his power, or in
his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It
says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, provide
for his family according to
his ability and his merits as a human being.
To apply any other test
to deny a man his hopes because of his color, or race, or his religion, or the place of his
birth
is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their
lives for American freedom.
Our fathers believed that if this noble view of the rights of man was to flourish, it must be
rooted in democracy. The most basic right of all
was the right to choose your own leaders. The
history of this country, in large measure, is the history of the expansion of that right to all
of our people. Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about
this there can and should be no argument.
Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote.
There is no reason which can excuse the denial
of that right. There is no duty which weighs
more heavily on us than
the duty we have to
ensure that right.
Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in
this country men and women are kept from voting
simply because they are Negroes. Every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been
used to deny this right. The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is
wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists, and if he
manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he did not
spell out his middle name or because he abbreviated a word on
the application. And if he manages
to fill out an application, he is given a test. The registrar is the sole judge of whether he
passes this test. He may be asked to recite the
entire Constitution, or explain the most
complex provisions of State law. And even a college degree cannot be used to prove that
he can read and write.
For the fact is that
the only way to pass these barriers is to show a white skin. Experience has
clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious
discrimination. No
law that we now have on the books and
I have helped to put three of them there can
ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it. In
such a case our duty must be clear to all of us. The Constitution
says that no person shall be
kept from voting because of his race or his color. We have all sworn an oath before God to
support and to defend that Constitution. We must
now act in obedience to that oath.