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Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam
Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their…
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Drum Major Instinct
Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, on 4 February 1968 This morning I would like to use as a subject from which to preach: “The Drum Major Instinct.” And our text for the morning is taken from a very familiar passage in the tenth chapter as recorded by Saint Mark. Beginning with the thirty-fifth…
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I Have a Dream
Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.…
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I’ve Been To The Mountaintop
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this speech in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 — the day before he was assassinated. Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself,…
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Letter From A Birmingham Jail
In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. was hauled off to jail in the aftermath of the Birmingham confrontation with Public Safety Commissioner “Bull” Connor and municipal authorities. When King was criticized by a group of white clergymen who blamed him for precipitating the violence, he penned a subdued, but passionate letter of…
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MIA Mass Meeting Speech
Address to First Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Mass Meeting, at Holt Street Baptist Church in December 1955 shortly after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. My friends, we are certainly very happy to see each of you out this evening. We are here…
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Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech
I accept this award in behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses,…
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Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Eulogy
Delivered at funeral service for three of the children — Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley — killed in the bombing. A separate service was held for the fourth victim, Carole Robertson. This afternoon we gather in the quiet of this sanctuary to pay our last tribute of respect to these…
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The Negro and the Constitution
Negroes were first brought to America in 1620 when England legalized slavery both in England and the colonies and America; the institution grew and thrived for about 150 years upon the backs of these black men. The empire of King Cotton was built and the southland maintained a status of life and hospitality distinctly its…
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The Purpose of Education
As I engage in the so-called “bull sessions” around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of the “brethren” think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still…
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Where Do We Go From Here?
Annual Report Delivered in August of 1967at the 11th Convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta Georgia. Dr. Abernathy, our distinguished vice president, fellow delegates to this, the tenth annual session of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, my brothers and sisters from not only all over the South, but from all over the…