It was 50 years ago today…

On this date — August 28, 1963 — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a speech that has reverberated for half a century.

The full text of his speech is available here as a pdf.

Here are a few excerpts from the “I Have a Dream” speech, taken from the web site History Wired, which was created by the Smithsonian Institute:

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 out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners 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 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 their character.

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 father’s 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. So let freedom ring from the 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 every hill and molehill of Mississippi and every mountainside.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement 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 spiritual, “Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”

Like the Dalai Lama, who professes to be “a simple monk,” Dr. King said of himself, “In the quiet recesses of my heart, I am fundamentally a clergyman, a Baptist preacher.”

This description of Dr. King (from Wikipedia) is worthy of reflection:

As a Christian minister, Martin Luther King’s main influence was Jesus Christ and the Christian gospels, which he would almost always quote in his religious meetings and speeches at church; but also in public discourses. King’s faith was strongly based in Jesus’ commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself, loving God above all, and loving your enemies, praying for them and blessing them. His non-violent thought was also based in the injunction to turn the other cheek in the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus’ teaching of “putting your sword back into its place” (Matthew 26:52). In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, King urges action consistent with what he describes as Jesus’ “extremist” love, and also quotes numerous other Christian pacifist authors, which was very usual for him. In his speech I’ve Been to the Mountaintop, he states he just wanted to do God’s will.

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s success with non-violent activism, King had “for a long time…wanted to take a trip to India”. With assistance from the Quaker group the American Friends Service Committee, he was able to make the journey in April 1959. The trip to India affected King in a profound way, deepening his understanding of non-violent resistance and his commitment to America’s struggle for civil rights. In a radio address made during his final evening in India, King reflected, “Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity”. In a sense, Gandhi seemed to have influenced him with certain moral principles, though Gandhi himself had been influenced by The Kingdom of God Is Within You, a nonviolent classic written by Christian anarchist Leo Tolstoy. In turn, both Gandhi and Martin Luther King had read Tolstoy. King quoted Tolstoy’s War and Peace as well in 1959. All three men—Tolstoy, Gandhi, and King—had been influenced by Jesus’ teachings on non-resistance to evil force.

While “I Have a Dream” is indisputably one of the most famous speeches of all time, Dr. King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” doubtless qualifies as one of the most famous written documents (pdf available here). It provides additional insight into Dr. King’s commitment to nonviolence.

As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self-purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves : “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?” “Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?”

I hope you are able to ace the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the “do-nothingism” of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest.

So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime—the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment.

The Only Love Project exists, in part, because of the work and character of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is his stirring example of love and nonviolence that touched our heart and inspired us to go and do likewise.

So, on this day, 50 years after one of the most famous speeches ever given, and for his commitment to “the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest,” we offer sincere gratitude and profound respect to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose principles we seek to embrace and exemplify in our daily lives.