king speech lyrics

I Have a Dream Speech Transcript – Martin Luther King Jr.

One of the most iconic and famous speeches of all time, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Read the full transcript of this classic speech.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 00:59 ) I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 01:32 ) Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, 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. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity, but 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. 100 years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 100 years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. 100 years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 03:10 ) So we’ve come here today to dramatize the shameful condition. In a sense, we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. 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 ever American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 04:25 ) But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom, and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. 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 make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 06:16 ) It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summit of the Negroes legitimate discontent will not pass until that is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. 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.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 06:53 ) There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But that is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plain of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy, which has engulfed the Negro community, must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize their destiny is tied up in our destiny.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 08:54 ) They have come realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone, and as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. They are those who asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negroes basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating, For Whites Only. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote, and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 10:48 ) I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that honor and suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friend, 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.”

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 12:54 ) 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 our skin, but by the content of that character. I have a dream today.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 13:50 ) 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 there 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.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 14:27 ) I have a 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. This is a 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.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 15:29 ) 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. If America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 15:58 ) 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, 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 Catholic, 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!

Transcribe Your Own Content Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling.

Other Related Transcripts

The Queen's Coronation Day Speech June 2nd, 1953 Transcript

Stay updated.

Get a weekly digest of the week’s most important transcripts in your inbox. It’s the news, without the news.

Popular Song Lyrics

Billboard Hot 100

Upcoming Lyrics

Recently Added

Top Lyrics of 2011

Top Lyrics of 2010

Top Lyrics of 2009

Popular Artists

Artists A-Z

Popular Albums

Upcoming Albums

Hip Hop/Rap

All Genres »

Daily Roundup

Album Reviews

Song Reviews

Submit Lyrics

Song Lyrics
Artists - F
FUTURISTIC Lyrics
King Speech Album
King Speech Lyrics

FUTURISTIC - King Speech Lyrics

Artist: FUTURISTIC

Album: King Speech

Always talk shit but my breath don't stink Flow been runnin', better rest my sink Cookin' these niggas, got the recipe If they mess with me, rest in peace Got drive like uber, never let the head rest Mic always on like bald dude with a headset Hit it 'til she squirt, damn, got the whole bed wet Rock out like Led Zep Uh, one take what I do, who you? Look at your whole crew, I don't know who's who You look confused, think you need a Blue's Clues Two girls one cup, you niggas is doo-doo All about business, I need a new suit For us, by us, my label is FUBU Microwave a nigga if he think he too cool I'm a misfit like I switched to a new school Upload a pic to the Gram Your girl with my dick in her hand, gross You should just stick with the plan You can sink quick in the sand, woah I know you a bitch, Mulan You can get folded, futon Every girl want the noodle, udon Goin' hard for the green, cruton Now I can see why you stress Now I can see why you stress (Why?) Your life is just like my lil brothers room Because that shit is a mess I know that I am the best There's something I need to confess (What's that?) I still use an iPhone 5 But somehow I got 6s I be out in Cali in the valley makin' money Do my dougie cause it's funny Sip a lot of tea with honey Make 'em jump like it's a Bungee Shittin' on 'em, need a Huggie Flow is cold, I need a Snuggie Now my pockets gettin' chubby All these women wanna touch me Cause I'm cuter than a puppy And it's like I won the lotto Cause I'm always gettin' lucky Now she lickin' my banana Like a motherfuckin' monkey And she not havin' my baby But she feel me in her tummy Let a nigga breathe All these sick words in my notes, I think my phone has got a disease My flow on Mufasa, long live the king I feel like Muhammad Ali Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee Okay, I'm back now You an ass clown Whatever that means You couldn't walk in my shoes Like you a skinny dude And I got fat feet Never been in the backseat You probably live in a taxi My flow is oh-so proactive And I ain't never had no pimples, nigga

Add Comment

In the know, popular futuristic lyrics.

Cannot annotate a non-flat selection. Make sure your selection starts and ends within the same node.

An annotation cannot contain another annotation.

BlackPast is dedicated to providing a global audience with reliable and accurate information on the history of African America and of people of African ancestry around the world. We aim to promote greater understanding through this knowledge to generate constructive change in our society.

(1963) martin luther king jr., “i have a dream”.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, remains his most memorable oration. The entire speech appears below.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. 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 had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 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 Negro is still languishing in the comers of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. 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. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to 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.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty three is not an end, but a beginning. 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. There will be neither rest nor try America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricable bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our modern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment 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.”

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 desert state sweltering in the heat of injustice and 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.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains, 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. This is the faith with which I return to the South. 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 work 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.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with 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. 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 snowcapped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks 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.

When we let 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!”

Do you find this information helpful? A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone.

BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. Your donation is fully tax-deductible.

Cite this entry in APA format:

Source of the author's information:.

William Safire, ed., Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (W. W. Norton & Company: New York, 1992).

History Classics
Your Profile
Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
This Day In History
History Podcasts
History Vault

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 19, 2023 | Original: November 30, 2017

The “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. before a crowd of some 250,000 people at the 1963 March on Washington, remains one of the most famous speeches in history. Weaving in references to the country’s Founding Fathers and the Bible , King used universal themes to depict the struggles of African Americans before closing with an improvised riff on his dreams of equality. The eloquent speech was immediately recognized as a highlight of the successful protest, and has endured as one of the signature moments of the civil rights movement .

Civil Rights Movement Before the Speech

Martin Luther King Jr. , a young Baptist minister, rose to prominence in the 1950s as a spiritual leader of the burgeoning civil rights movement and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SLCC).

By the early 1960s, African Americans had seen gains made through organized campaigns that placed its participants in harm’s way but also garnered attention for their plight. One such campaign, the 1961 Freedom Rides , resulted in vicious beatings for many participants, but resulted in the Interstate Commerce Commission ruling that ended the practice of segregation on buses and in stations.

Similarly, the Birmingham Campaign of 1963, designed to challenge the Alabama city’s segregationist policies, produced the searing images of demonstrators being beaten, attacked by dogs and blasted with high-powered water hoses.

Around the time he wrote his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King decided to move forward with the idea for another event that coordinated with Negro American Labor Council (NACL) founder A. Philip Randolph’s plans for a job rights march.

March on Washington

Thanks to the efforts of veteran organizer Bayard Rustin, the logistics of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom came together by the summer of 1963.

Joining Randolph and King were the fellow heads of the “Big Six” civil rights organizations: Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Whitney Young of the National Urban League (NUL), James Farmer of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Other influential leaders also came aboard, including Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Joachim Prinz of the American Jewish Congress (AJC).

Scheduled for August 28, the event was to consist of a mile-long march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, in honor of the president who had signed the Emancipation Proclamation a century earlier, and would feature a series of prominent speakers.

Its stated goals included demands for desegregated public accommodations and public schools, redress of violations of constitutional rights and an expansive federal works program to train employees.

The March on Washington produced a bigger turnout than expected, as an estimated 250,000 people arrived to participate in what was then the largest gathering for an event in the history of the nation’s capital.

Along with notable speeches by Randolph and Lewis, the audience was treated to performances by folk luminaries Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and gospel favorite Mahalia Jackson .

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech Origins

In preparation for his turn at the event, King solicited contributions from colleagues and incorporated successful elements from previous speeches. Although his “I have a dream” segment did not appear in his written text, it had been used to great effect before, most recently during a June 1963 speech to 150,000 supporters in Detroit.

Unlike his fellow speakers in Washington, King didn’t have the text ready for advance distribution by August 27. He didn’t even sit down to write the speech until after arriving at his hotel room later that evening, finishing up a draft after midnight.

‘Free At Last’

As the March on Washington drew to a close, television cameras beamed Martin Luther King’s image to a national audience. He began his speech slowly but soon showed his gift for weaving recognizable references to the Bible, the U.S. Constitution and other universal themes into his oratory.

Pointing out how the country’s founders had signed a “promissory note” that offered great freedom and opportunity, King noted that “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.'”

At times warning of the potential for revolt, King nevertheless maintained a positive, uplifting tone, imploring the audience to “go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.”

Mahalia Jackson Prompts MLK: 'Tell 'em About the Dream, Martin'

Around the halfway point of the speech, Mahalia Jackson implored him to “Tell ’em about the ‘Dream,’ Martin.” Whether or not King consciously heard, he soon moved away from his prepared text.

Repeating the mantra, “I have a dream,” he offered up hope 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” and the desire to “transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”

“And when this happens,” he bellowed in his closing remarks, “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!'”

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech Text

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, 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. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 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 Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's Capital to cash a check. 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.

This note was a promise that all men, yes, Black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check—a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. 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 make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. 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. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"

We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only."

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, 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."

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.

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, that 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 that one day every valley shall be exhalted [sic], 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. This is the faith that I will 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.

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 Pilgrims' 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 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 the 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!"

MLK Speech Reception

King’s stirring speech was immediately singled out as the highlight of the successful march.

James Reston of The New York Times wrote that the “pilgrimage was merely a great spectacle” until King’s turn, and James Baldwin later described the impact of King’s words as making it seem that “we stood on a height, and could see our inheritance; perhaps we could make the kingdom real.”

Just three weeks after the march, King returned to the difficult realities of the struggle by eulogizing three of the girls killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

Still, his televised triumph at the feet of Lincoln brought favorable exposure to his movement, and eventually helped secure the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 . The following year, after the violent Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama, African Americans secured another victory with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 .

Over the final years of his life, King continued to spearhead campaigns for change even as he faced challenges by increasingly radical factions of the movement he helped popularize. Shortly after visiting Memphis, Tennessee, in support of striking sanitation workers, and just hours after delivering another celebrated speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” King was assassinated by shooter James Earl Ray on the balcony of his hotel room on April 4, 1968.

'I Have a Dream' Speech Legacy

Remembered for its powerful imagery and its repetition of a simple and memorable phrase, King’s “I Have a Dream” speech has endured as a signature moment of the civil rights struggle, and a crowning achievement of one of the movement’s most famous faces.

The Library of Congress added the speech to the National Recording Registry in 2002, and the following year the National Park Service dedicated an inscribed marble slab to mark the spot where King stood that day.

In 2016, Time included the speech as one of its 10 greatest orations in history.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Watch acclaimed Black History documentaries on HISTORY Vault.

“I Have a Dream,” Address Delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute . March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. National Park Service . JFK, A. Philip Randolph and the March on Washington. The White House Historical Association . The Lasting Power of Dr. King’s Dream Speech. The New York Times .

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

Skip to main content
Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the March on Washington. AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Monday marks Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Below is a transcript of his celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. NPR's Talk of the Nation aired the speech in 2010 — listen to that broadcast at the audio link above.

Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders gather before a rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington. National Archives/Hulton Archive via Getty Images hide caption

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, 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. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 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 Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.

Code Switch

The power of martin luther king jr.'s anger.

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. This note was a promise that all men — yes, Black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

Martin Luther King is not your mascot

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

Civil rights protesters march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. Kurt Severin/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

Throughline

Bayard rustin: the man behind the march on washington (2021).

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: for whites only.

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

How The Voting Rights Act Came To Be And How It's Changed

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

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.

People clap and sing along to a freedom song between speeches at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Express Newspapers via Getty Images hide caption

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.

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.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, 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.

Nikole Hannah-Jones on the power of collective memory

LISTEN & FOLLOW
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Amazon Music

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

This is our hope. 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.

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 pilgrims' 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 snowcapped 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.

Correction Jan. 15, 2024

A previous version of this transcript included the line, "We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now." The correct wording is "We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now."

Our God is Marching On!

25 March 1965

Montgomery, Ala.

My dear and abiding friends, Ralph Abernathy, and to all of the distinguished Americans seated here on the rostrum, my friends and co-workers of the state of Alabama, and to all of the freedom-loving people who have assembled here this afternoon from all over our nation and from all over the world: Last Sunday, more than eight thousand of us started on a mighty walk from Selma, Alabama. We have walked through desolate valleys and across the trying hills. We have walked on meandering highways and rested our bodies on rocky byways. Some of our faces are burned from the outpourings of the sweltering sun. Some have literally slept in the mud. We have been drenched by the rains. [Audience:] (Speak) Our bodies are tired and our feet are somewhat sore.

But today as I stand before you and think back over that great march, I can say, as Sister Pollard said—a seventy-year-old Negro woman who lived in this community during the bus boycott—and one day, she was asked while walking if she didn’t want to ride. And when she answered, “No,” the person said, “Well, aren’t you tired?” And with her ungrammatical profundity, she said, “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.” (Yes, sir. All right) And in a real sense this afternoon, we can say that our feet are tired, (Yes, sir) but our souls are rested.

They told us we wouldn’t get here. And there were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, (Well. Yes, sir. Talk) but all the world today knows that we are here and we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama saying, “We ain’t goin’ let nobody turn us around.” (Yes, sir. Speak) [Applause]

Now it is not an accident that one of the great marches of American history should terminate in Montgomery, Alabama. (Yes, sir) Just ten years ago, in this very city, a new philosophy was born of the Negro struggle. Montgomery was the first city in the South in which the entire Negro community united and squarely faced its age-old oppressors. (Yes, sir. Well) Out of this struggle, more than bus [de]segregation was won; a new idea, more powerful than guns or clubs was born. Negroes took it and carried it across the South in epic battles (Yes, sir. Speak) that electrified the nation (Well) and the world.

Yet, strangely, the climactic conflicts always were fought and won on Alabama soil. After Montgomery’s, heroic confrontations loomed up in Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and elsewhere. But not until the colossus of segregation was challenged in Birmingham did the conscience of America begin to bleed. White America was profoundly aroused by Birmingham because it witnessed the whole community of Negroes facing terror and brutality with majestic scorn and heroic courage. And from the wells of this democratic spirit, the nation finally forced Congress (Well) to write legislation (Yes, sir) in the hope that it would eradicate the stain of Birmingham. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave Negroes some part of their rightful dignity, (Speak, sir) but without the vote it was dignity without strength. (Yes, sir)

Once more the method of nonviolent resistance (Yes) was unsheathed from its scabbard, and once again an entire community was mobilized to confront the adversary. (Yes, sir) And again the brutality of a dying order shrieks across the land. Yet, Selma, Alabama, became a shining moment in the conscience of man. If the worst in American life lurked in its dark streets, the best of American instincts arose passionately from across the nation to overcome it. (Yes, sir. Speak) There never was a moment in American history (Yes, sir) more honorable and more inspiring than the pilgrimage of clergymen and laymen of every race and faith pouring into Selma to face danger (Yes) at the side of its embattled Negroes.

The confrontation of good and evil compressed in the tiny community of Selma (Speak, speak) generated the massive power (Yes, sir. Yes, sir) to turn the whole nation to a new course. A president born in the South (Well) had the sensitivity to feel the will of the country, (Speak, sir) and in an address that will live in history as one of the most passionate pleas for human rights ever made by a president of our nation, he pledged the might of the federal government to cast off the centuries-old blight. President Johnson rightly praised the courage of the Negro for awakening the conscience of the nation. (Yes, sir)

On our part we must pay our profound respects to the white Americans who cherish their democratic traditions over the ugly customs and privileges of generations and come forth boldly to join hands with us. (Yes, sir) From Montgomery to Birmingham, (Yes, sir) from Birmingham to Selma, (Yes, sir) from Selma back to Montgomery, (Yes) a trail wound in a circle long and often bloody, yet it has become a highway up from darkness. (Yes, sir) Alabama has tried to nurture and defend evil, but evil is choking to death in the dusty roads and streets of this state. (Yes, sir. Speak, sir) So I stand before you this afternoon (Speak, sir. Well) with the conviction that segregation is on its deathbed in Alabama, and the only thing uncertain about it is how costly the segregationists and Wallace will make the funeral. (Go ahead. Yes, sir) [Applause]

Our whole campaign in Alabama has been centered around the right to vote. In focusing the attention of the nation and the world today on the flagrant denial of the right to vote, we are exposing the very origin, the root cause, of racial segregation in the Southland. Racial segregation as a way of life did not come about as a natural result of hatred between the races immediately after the Civil War. There were no laws segregating the races then. And as the noted historian, C. Vann Woodward, in his book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, clearly points out, the segregation of the races was really a political stratagem employed by the emerging Bourbon interests in the South to keep the southern masses divided and southern labor the cheapest in the land. You see, it was a simple thing to keep the poor white masses working for near-starvation wages in the years that followed the Civil War. Why, if the poor white plantation or mill worker became dissatisfied with his low wages, the plantation or mill owner would merely threaten to fire him and hire former Negro slaves and pay him even less. Thus, the southern wage level was kept almost unbearably low.

Toward the end of the Reconstruction era, something very significant happened. (Listen to him) That is what was known as the Populist Movement. (Speak, sir) The leaders of this movement began awakening the poor white masses (Yes, sir) and the former Negro slaves to the fact that they were being fleeced by the emerging Bourbon interests. Not only that, but they began uniting the Negro and white masses (Yeah) into a voting bloc that threatened to drive the Bourbon interests from the command posts of political power in the South.

To meet this threat, the southern aristocracy began immediately to engineer this development of a segregated society. (Right) I want you to follow me through here because this is very important to see the roots of racism and the denial of the right to vote. Through their control of mass media, they revised the doctrine of white supremacy. They saturated the thinking of the poor white masses with it, (Yes) thus clouding their minds to the real issue involved in the Populist Movement. They then directed the placement on the books of the South of laws that made it a crime for Negroes and whites to come together as equals at any level. (Yes, sir) And that did it. That crippled and eventually destroyed the Populist Movement of the nineteenth century.

If it may be said of the slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow. (Yes, sir) He gave him Jim Crow. (Uh huh) And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, (Yes, sir) he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man. (Right sir) And he ate Jim Crow. (Uh huh) And when his undernourished children cried out for the necessities that his low wages could not provide, he showed them the Jim Crow signs on the buses and in the stores, on the streets and in the public buildings. (Yes, sir) And his children, too, learned to feed upon Jim Crow, (Speak) their last outpost of psychological oblivion. (Yes, sir)

Thus, the threat of the free exercise of the ballot by the Negro and the white masses alike (Uh huh) resulted in the establishment of a segregated society. They segregated southern money from the poor whites; they segregated southern mores from the rich whites; (Yes, sir) they segregated southern churches from Christianity (Yes, sir); they segregated southern minds from honest thinking; (Yes, sir) and they segregated the Negro from everything. (Yes, sir) That’s what happened when the Negro and white masses of the South threatened to unite and build a great society: a society of justice where none would pray upon the weakness of others; a society of plenty where greed and poverty would be done away; a society of brotherhood where every man would respect the dignity and worth of human personality. (Yes, sir)

We’ve come a long way since that travesty of justice was perpetrated upon the American mind. James Weldon Johnson put it eloquently. He said:

We have come over a way That with tears hath been watered. (Yes, sir) We have come treading our paths Through the blood of the slaughtered. (Yes, sir) Out of the gloomy past, (Yes, sir) Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam Of our bright star is cast. (Speak, sir)

Today I want to tell the city of Selma, (Tell them, Doctor) today I want to say to the state of Alabama, (Yes, sir) today I want to say to the people of America and the nations of the world, that we are not about to turn around. (Yes, sir) We are on the move now. (Yes, sir)

Yes, we are on the move and no wave of racism can stop us. (Yes, sir) We are on the move now. The burning of our churches will not deter us. (Yes, sir) The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us. (Yes, sir) We are on the move now. (Yes, sir) The beating and killing of our clergymen and young people will not divert us. We are on the move now. (Yes, sir) The wanton release of their known murderers would not discourage us. We are on the move now. (Yes, sir) Like an idea whose time has come, (Yes, sir) not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. (Yes, sir) We are moving to the land of freedom. (Yes, sir)

Let us therefore continue our triumphant march (Uh huh) to the realization of the American dream. (Yes, sir) Let us march on segregated housing (Yes, sir) until every ghetto or social and economic depression dissolves, and Negroes and whites live side by side in decent, safe, and sanitary housing. (Yes, sir) Let us march on segregated schools (Let us march, Tell it) until every vestige of segregated and inferior education becomes a thing of the past, and Negroes and whites study side-by-side in the socially-healing context of the classroom.

Let us march on poverty (Let us march) until no American parent has to skip a meal so that their children may eat. (Yes, sir) March on poverty (Let us march) until no starved man walks the streets of our cities and towns (Yes, sir) in search of jobs that do not exist. (Yes, sir) Let us march on poverty (Let us march) until wrinkled stomachs in Mississippi are filled, (That’s right) and the idle industries of Appalachia are realized and revitalized, and broken lives in sweltering ghettos are mended and remolded.

Let us march on ballot boxes, (Let’s march) march on ballot boxes until race-baiters disappear from the political arena.

Let us march on ballot boxes until the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs (Yes, sir) will be transformed into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens. (Speak, Doctor)

Let us march on ballot boxes (Let us march) until the Wallaces of our nation tremble away in silence.

Let us march on ballot boxes (Let us march) until we send to our city councils (Yes, sir), state legislatures, (Yes, sir) and the United States Congress, (Yes, sir) men who will not fear to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.

Let us march on ballot boxes (Let us march. March) until brotherhood becomes more than a meaningless word in an opening prayer, but the order of the day on every legislative agenda.

Let us march on ballot boxes (Yes) until all over Alabama God’s children will be able to walk the earth in decency and honor.

There is nothing wrong with marching in this sense. (Yes, sir) The Bible tells us that the mighty men of Joshua merely walked about the walled city of Jericho (Yes) and the barriers to freedom came tumbling down. (Yes, sir) I like that old Negro spiritual, (Yes, sir) “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho.” In its simple, yet colorful, depiction (Yes, sir) of that great moment in biblical history, it tells us that:

Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, (Tell it) Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, (Yes, sir) And the walls come tumbling down. (Yes, sir. Tell it) Up to the walls of Jericho they marched, spear in hand. (Yes, sir) “Go blow them ramhorns,” Joshua cried, “‘Cause the battle am in my hand.” (Yes, sir)

These words I have given you just as they were given us by the unknown, long-dead, dark-skinned originator. (Yes, sir) Some now long-gone black bard bequeathed to posterity these words in ungrammatical form, (Yes, sir) yet with emphatic pertinence for all of us today. (Uh huh)

The battle is in our hands. And we can answer with creative nonviolence the call to higher ground to which the new directions of our struggle summons us. (Yes, sir) The road ahead is not altogether a smooth one. (No) There are no broad highways that lead us easily and inevitably to quick solutions. But we must keep going.

In the glow of the lamplight on my desk a few nights ago, I gazed again upon the wondrous sign of our times, full of hope and promise of the future. (Uh huh) And I smiled to see in the newspaper photographs of many a decade ago, the faces so bright, so solemn, of our valiant heroes, the people of Montgomery. To this list may be added the names of all those (Yes) who have fought and, yes, died in the nonviolent army of our day: Medgar Evers, (Speak) three civil rights workers in Mississippi last summer, (Uh huh) William Moore, as has already been mentioned, (Yes, sir) the Reverend James Reeb, (Yes, sir) Jimmy Lee Jackson, (Yes, sir) and four little girls in the church of God in Birmingham on Sunday morning. (Yes, sir) But in spite of this, we must go on and be sure that they did not die in vain. (Yes, sir) The pattern of their feet as they walked through Jim Crow barriers in the great stride toward freedom is the thunder of the marching men of Joshua, (Yes, sir) and the world rocks beneath their tread. (Yes, sir)

My people, my people, listen. (Yes, sir) The battle is in our hands. (Yes, sir) The battle is in our hands in Mississippi and Alabama and all over the United States. (Yes, sir) I know there is a cry today in Alabama, (Uh huh) we see it in numerous editorials: “When will Martin Luther King, SCLC, SNCC, and all of these civil rights agitators and all of the white clergymen and labor leaders and students and others get out of our community and let Alabama return to normalcy?”

But I have a message that I would like to leave with Alabama this evening. (Tell it) That is exactly what we don’t want, and we will not allow it to happen, (Yes, sir) for we know that it was normalcy in Marion (Yes, sir) that led to the brutal murder of Jimmy Lee Jackson. (Speak) It was normalcy in Birmingham (Yes) that led to the murder on Sunday morning of four beautiful, unoffending, innocent girls. It was normalcy on Highway 80 (Yes, sir) that led state troopers to use tear gas and horses and billy clubs against unarmed human beings who were simply marching for justice. (Speak, sir) It was normalcy by a cafe in Selma, Alabama, that led to the brutal beating of Reverend James Reeb.

It is normalcy all over our country (Yes, sir) which leaves the Negro perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of vast ocean of material prosperity. It is normalcy all over Alabama (Yeah) that prevents the Negro from becoming a registered voter. (Yes) No, we will not allow Alabama (Go ahead) to return to normalcy. [Applause]

The only normalcy that we will settle for (Yes, sir) is the normalcy that recognizes the dignity and worth of all of God’s children. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that allows judgment to run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. (Yes, sir) The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy of brotherhood, the normalcy of true peace, the normalcy of justice.

And so as we go away this afternoon, let us go away more than ever before committed to this struggle and committed to nonviolence. I must admit to you that there are still some difficult days ahead. We are still in for a season of suffering in many of the black belt counties of Alabama, many areas of Mississippi, many areas of Louisiana. I must admit to you that there are still jail cells waiting for us, and dark and difficult moments. But if we will go on with the faith that nonviolence and its power can transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows, we will be able to change all of these conditions.

And so I plead with you this afternoon as we go ahead: remain committed to nonviolence. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man. (Yes)

I know you are asking today, “How long will it take?” (Speak, sir) Somebody’s asking, “How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?” Somebody’s asking, “When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Selma and Birmingham and communities all over the South, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men?” Somebody’s asking, “When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night, (Speak, speak, speak) plucked from weary souls with chains of fear and the manacles of death? How long will justice be crucified, (Speak) and truth bear it?” (Yes, sir)

I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, (Yes, sir) however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, (No sir) because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.” (Yes, sir)

How long? Not long, (Yes, sir) because “no lie can live forever.” (Yes, sir)

How long? Not long, (All right. How long) because “you shall reap what you sow.” (Yes, sir)

How long? (How long?) Not long: (Not long)

Truth forever on the scaffold, (Speak) Wrong forever on the throne, (Yes, sir) Yet that scaffold sways the future, (Yes, sir) And, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above his own.

How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. (Yes, sir)

How long? Not long, (Not long) because:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; (Yes, sir) He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; (Yes) He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword; (Yes, sir) His truth is marching on. (Yes, sir) He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; (Speak, sir) He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat. (That’s right) O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant my feet! Our God is marching on. (Yeah) Glory, hallelujah! (Yes, sir) Glory, hallelujah! (All right) Glory, hallelujah! Glory, hallelujah!

His truth is marching on. [Applause]

ABBREVIATIONS
BIOGRAPHIES
CALCULATORS
CONVERSIONS
DEFINITIONS

Kingdom of Heaven 2005

King Baldwin Iv: When I was sixteen I won a great victory. I felt in that moment that I should live to be one hundred, now I know I shall not see thirty. None of us know our end really, or what hand will guide us there. A King may move a man, a father may claim a son. That man can also move himself. And only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played, or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone. Even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say "but I was told by others to do thus" or that "virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that.

Submitted by wikidude on July 19, 2022

Share your thoughts on this Kingdom of Heaven's quote with the community:

Report Comment

We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe. If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.

You need to be logged in to favorite .

Create a new account.

Your name: * Required

Your email address: * Required

Pick a user name: * Required

Username: * Required

Password: * Required

Forgot your password? Retrieve it

Quote of the Day Today's Quote | Archive

Would you like us to send you a free inspiring quote delivered to your inbox daily.

Please enter your email address:

Use the citation below to add this movie quote to your bibliography:

Style: MLA Chicago APA

"Kingdom of Heaven Quotes." Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. < https://www.quotes.net/mquote/1208386 >.

Know another quote from Kingdom of Heaven?

Don't let people miss on a great quote from the "kingdom of heaven" movie - add it here, the web's largest resource for, famous quotes & sayings, a member of the stands4 network, our favorite collection of, famous movies.

Browse Quotes.net

Are you a quotes master, "tonight we dine in hell".

Advertise with us

History Magazine
History of Britain

The King’s Speech

Perhaps you have seen the Oscar winning film, now you can view the original transcript of the King’s Speech, which was sent to Scotland Yard in 1939, announcing that Britain was going to war…

Ben Johnson

Perhaps you have seen the award winning film – which was nominated for 12 Oscars – now you can view the original transcript of the King’s Speech, which was sent to Scotland Yard in 1939, announcing that Britain was going to war.

The transcript – which was broadcast to the nation on 3 September 1939 – can be viewed free at the Metropolitan Police’ Historical Collection – along with hundreds of other documents, artefacts and images detailing the history of policing since 1829.

The King’s Speech – starring Colin Firth – tells the inspiring story of George VI who overcomes his stammer as he reluctantly takes the throne when his brother, Edward VIII abdicates in 1936 over his plans to marry twice divorced Wallis Simpson.

A series of announcements by the King and Prime Minister were broadcast to the country asking police for their help in getting people to follow air raid precautions and wear gas masks. A war cabinet was also formed and people were asked to stand firm and resolute in the battle ahead.

In his first speech, on 3 September 1939 , King George VI said: “In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, for the second time in the lives of most of us we are at war. Over and over again we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences between ourselves and those who are now our enemies. But it has been in vain. The task will be hard. There may be dark days ahead and war is no longer confined to the battlefield.”

The new king quickly won the respect of his ministers and his people and his hard work and conscientious manner eventually brought him respect in his war torn country.

Neil Paterson, Manager of the Historical Collection said: “The Met is in such a unique position to have a rich history of documents, photos and images dating back to 1829. We are very proud of our Collection – which is free to see – and people from all over the world regularly come to view it.”

View the transcript below of the King’s speech:

The Historical Collection is based at Empress State Building, Empress Approach, Lillie Road, London, SW6 1TR, London, from 10am – 4pm weekdays.

Published: 25th December 2014.

History in your inbox

Historic Allies and Enemies of Great Britain

Since the Act of Union in 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain has fought in over 120 wars across a total of 170 countries...

King Charles gives first public speech since cancer diagnosis at D-Day event for veterans

King Charles III delivered his first speech since his cancer diagnosis at an event commemorating those who served during World War II.

The monarch was in Portsmouth, England, accompanied by Queen Camilla and Prince William, to mark the upcoming 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landings.

In a video shared on the official royal website, he told the crowd of veterans and politicians, "The stories of courage, resilience and solidarity we have heard today and throughout our lives cannot fail to move us, to inspire us and to remind us of what we owe to that great wartime generation, now tragically dwindling to so few."

King Charles received a standing ovation as he walked on stage with Queen Camilla, and the Daily Mail reported he was "adamant" about attending the event as he continues to battle cancer.

KING CHARLES, KATE MIDDLETON'S CANCER BATTLES MAKE THEM MORE RELATABLE TO BRITISH PUBLIC: EXPERTS

In February, Buckingham Palace announced Charles had been diagnosed with a form of cancer and is undergoing treatment. A "separate issue of concern" was identified during the monarch's "benign prostate enlargement" procedure at the London Clinic.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"Subsequent diagnostic tests have identified a form of cancer," the palace said in a statement at the time.

In March, he attended Easter services, his first major event since announcing his cancer diagnosis, and officially returned to his public-facing duties in May.

During his speech, King Charles III also highlighted Portsmouth’s role in the mission, saying, "Those who gathered here in Portsmouth would never forget the sight. It was by far the largest military fleet the world has ever known. Yet all knew that both victory and failure were possible, and none could know their fate."

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER

He concluded with a reminder to give thanks to those who served and lost their lives in service of freedom.

"So as we give thanks for all those who gave so much to win the victory, whose fruits we still enjoy to this day, let us once again commit ourselves always to remember, cherish and honor those who served that day and to live up to the freedom they died for by balancing rights with civic responsibilities to our country," he said. "For we are all eternally in their debt."

At one point during the proceedings, both King Charles and Queen Camilla appeared to tear up at the intensity of the emotional remembrances.

According to People, Prince William echoed his father’s sentiments during his speech, saying he was "deeply honored" to be speaking with the veterans who landed at Normandy, saying, "We will always remember those who served and those who waved them off. The mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters who watched their loved ones go into battle, unsure if they would ever return."

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

"Today, we remember the bravery of those who crossed this sea to liberate Europe, those who ensured that Operation Overlord was a success and those who waited for their safe return," he added.

The Prince of Wales also read a moving excerpt from the diary of Captain Alastair Bannerman, a soldier who was part of the D-Day landings, addressed to his wife just hours before the operation launched.

Dame Helen Mirren hosted the event, addressing the crowd, "The presence today of some of those who contributed to that remarkable venture is an extraordinary privilege. Your bravery remains as inspiring now as it was eight decades ago. Thank you," per The Daily Mail.

The Portsmouth event falls on the day before the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing, which took place June 6, 1944. The seaside town hosted some of the 156,000 Allied and Commonwealth troops the day before the invasion, which altered the course of WWII.

Original article source: King Charles gives first public speech since cancer diagnosis at D-Day event for veterans

King Charles III gave his first public speech at a U.K. event marking the upcoming 80th anniversary of D-Day. Getty Images

King and Queen appear emotional amid tributes to 'courage' of D-Day veterans

The King said it was "our duty" to never forget the sacrifice made by the wartime generation in what was his first public speech since his cancer diagnosis.

Wednesday 5 June 2024 22:03, UK

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

The King and Queen appeared to be moved to tears as they paid tribute to the "courage and service" of veterans at commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

At an event in Portsmouth , the King said it was "our duty" to ensure the "sacrifice" made by the wartime generation in "replacing tyranny with freedom" was never forgotten.

Pictures showed the King appearing to wipe a tear from his eye at an event which saw him make his first public speech and his most high-profile appearance since his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

D-Day latest updates

The Queen seemed to be emotional following words from Royal Navy serviceman Eric Bateman at the major event, which was also attended by the Prince of Wales, politicians and veterans.

Addressing the crowd, the King said: "The stories of courage, resilience and solidarity we have heard today and throughout our lives cannot fail to move us, to inspire us and to remind us of what we owe to that great wartime generation.

"It is our privilege to hear that testimony, but our role is not purely passive.

"It is our duty to ensure that we and future generations do not forget their service and their sacrifice in replacing tyranny with freedom."

The King praised the "truly collective effort" of those on the home front during the Second World War and said Britain was "eternally" indebted to those who served.

William read an extract from the diary of Captain Alastair Bannerman of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, a soldier who was part of D-Day, addressed to his wife on the morning of the landings.

He told the flag-waving crowd he was "deeply honoured" to be part of proceedings on Southsea Common and said "we will always remember those who served".

He wore medals during his address, including the Great Master of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath around his neck, Golden, Diamond and Platinum Jubilee medals and a coronation medal.

Dame Helen Mirren formally introduced the event at around 11am, where she praised the bravery of the veterans in attendance.

Children waved Union Jack flags as actor Phil Dunster appeared on stage in 1940s military clothing to read a letter written by Major Rodney Maude of the Royal Engineers 48 hours before D-Day.

Call The Midwife star Helen George led an ensemble of singers in a rendition of Dame Vera Lynn's We'll Meet Again, with the crowd joining in with the lyrics from the 1939 song.

Some veterans will attend two days of remembrance events in Portsmouth to mark the historic milestone.

'I'm very lucky to be here'

Elsewhere on Wednesday, a D-Day veteran leading an act of remembrance saluted fallen soldiers as the Last Post was played at a ceremony in Normandy.

Some 11 veterans with the Spirit of Normandy Trust joined commemorations in Colleville-Montgomery.

Royal Navy veteran Alec Penstone, 99, who served on HMS Campania, said: "I'm surprised I'm still here, I didn't expect to be. I'm very lucky."

PABest Bernard Morgan, 100, a veteran from Cheshire, pays tribute at the Bayeux War Cemetery ahead of a service of commemoration for the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday. Picture date: Wednesday June 5, 2024.

Read more on Sky News: Are the sacrifices made by Allied troops being forgotten? Legacy of the Mad Piper who played bagpipes on D-Day beaches

Princess Anne hails 'loyalty and bravery' of soldiers

The Princess Royal unveiled a statue in Normandy of a rifleman from the Royal Regina Rifles, shown weapon in hand storming the beaches on D-Day, as she hailed the "loyalty, bravery and duty" of a Canadian regiment.

Princes Anne then paid tribute to British D-Day veterans at the Royal British Legion's service of commemoration at Bayeux War Cemetery, telling one he was the reason she performed her public role.

Anne joined veterans and their families at the service, where the congregation was surrounded by the manicured graves of more than 4,000 military casualties.

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

The Normandy landings were the largest seaborne invasion in history, with the 1944 battle laying the foundation for an Allied victory.

Troops from the UK, the US, Canada and France attacked German forces on the beaches at Normandy in northern France on 6 June 1944.

Allied troops departed from Portsmouth on 5 June.

On Thursday - the 80th anniversary of D-Day - commemorations will begin in Normandy at 7.25am, the same time the beach landings began in 1944.

A military piper will land on the beaches of Arromanches-les-Bains in a Royal Marines landing craft and begin playing a lament in tribute to those who led the landings.

Veterans take centre stage at emotional event

Royal correspondent

Senior royals were sitting in the front row, but it was the veterans who took centre stage.

And when Eric Batemen, who had served on board HMS Erebus, spoke about D-Day, it was a moment that moved the Queen to tears.

The whole ceremony was full of emotion, as Portsmouth paused to remember those who risked and gave their lives.

It was a date the King didn't want to miss.

Much of his calendar was cancelled after his cancer diagnosis, but he knows how much these milestones mean.

And after the event had finished, the King and Queen, along with Prince William, heard the veterans' stories and recollections first-hand.

The veterans told us how much it had meant.

It was a poignant day, and surely the last-ever large gathering of those who can still say "I was there".

“You Can F***ing Live Your Dream!”- Theo Von Delivers Incredible Impersonation Of Jelly Roll’s Acceptance Speeches

Protect Theo Von at all costs.

Over the last year, the country music industry has seen the rise of Jelly Roll . He captured listeners’ hearts with his lyrics and message—a true rags-to-riches story. This success has also led to the winning of several huge awards, such as the CMA New Artist of the Year , the CMT Performance of the Year, the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Male Country Artist, and more.

But I think we can all agree that one of the best things about Jelly’s wins is his acceptance speeches. The man takes everyone in the audience and watches the award shows from home to CHURCH, leaving listeners feeling like they can run through walls. The passion he conveys with each acceptance speech highlights that his successes are about much more than the music but the second chance at life this career has given him.

I highly suggest watching his CMA Awards speech if you have been living under a rock and have yet to experience a Jelly Roll acceptance speech.

Feeling pretty fired up, right?

As if Jelly Roll’s speeches couldn’t get any better, Theo Von enters the chat, giving us an impression of Jelly Roll during these monumental moments, and it’s PURE GOLD.

During a recent This Past Weekend podcast episode, Von left Joey Diaz in stitches by laying down a hilarious “acceptance speech” the way Jelly Roll would deliver it.

“Jelly Roll, every time he wins an award, he gets up out there, and he’s like, ‘I just wanna thank… right now there’s somebody stuck under a bridge. There’s somebody out there who’s got a size 11 foot in a size 8 tennis shoe, and I just wanna say you can f**king live your dream!'”

The podcast editors then hilariously clip Von’s impression with a portion of his CMA acceptance speech.

“Every time Jelly gets an award, man. He just…he’s so full of feeling, bro. He gets up there and is just like, ‘I was a M aître D’ at a Macaroni Grill, and now I’m a Grammy Award-winning artist!’ Like sometimes it’s just f**king like…

Even at a Chipotle, if they just call his name to get his order, he goes out there, he picks it up, he’s like, ‘I wanna let every illegal alien in this motherf**ker know, with only 90 singing lessons, you can win a f**kin’ American Music Award!'”

The whole time, Joey Diaz is on the verge of tears; he is laughing so hard.

Von delivers the hilarious lines with the same growl and yell that Jelly does into the microphone during the speeches. The accuracy of the bit is beyond funny. Thankfully, Jelly got a kick out of it, too, commenting on the clipped video.

“I love you Theo and Uncle CoCo.”

Theo Von is truly a national treasure.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Whiskey Riff (@whiskeyriff)

You can watch the full podcast here:

MORE FROM WHISKEY RIFF

WHISKEY RIFF RAFF PODCAST

WHISKEY RIFF SHOP

STAY ENTERTAINED

A riff on what country is really about.

Never Miss Out

NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

The D-Day story that made Camilla cry

Share this with

Queen Camilla in the Royal Box at the UK's national commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, hosted by the Ministry of Defence on Southsea Common in Portsmouth, Hampshire. Picture date: Wednesday June 5, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story MEMORIAL DDay. Photo credit should read: Dylan Martinez/PA Wire

The Queen was moved to tears during commemorations for the 80 th anniversary of D-Day as a veteran recounted the horror of losing his best friend on the beach at Normandy.

Camilla was overcome with emotion as Royal Navy serviceman Eric Bateman, 98, recounted his story – with King Charles also seen wiping his eyes.

The couple were joined by the Prince of Wales , leading UK politicians and veterans at a major event in Portsmouth on Wednesday.

Charles paid tribute to the ‘courage, resilience and solidarity’ of veterans, adding: ‘We are all eternally in their debt.’

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

D-Day veteran Eric Bateman (second right) alongside his son-in-law Keith (right) and great granddaughters Annabel and Imogen (Picture: PA)

Mr Bateman was joined on stage by his two great-granddaughters. He served on HMS Erebus alongside an American fleet on their way to Utah beach.

He described ‘ships as far as you could see’, adding: ‘You could almost walk across the Channel.’

The veteran went on: ‘I’m lucky to be here 80 years later with two of my great-grandchildren.

‘So many men and women, including my dear friend Fred, joined up with me but unfortunately never made it.

‘I’m proud to be here today to all of them and to make sure they will always be remembered.’

His great-granddaughters then took the microphone to thank all the soldiers of the Normandy landings, saying: ‘Without them, we wouldn’t have the freedoms we enjoy today.

‘We will never forget. Thank you.’

Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla react as they attend a commemorative event for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, in Portsmouth, Britain June 5, 2024. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/Pool

Addressing the crowd, Charles said: ‘The stories of courage, resilience and solidarity we have heard today and throughout our lives cannot fail to move us, to inspire us and to remind us of what we owe to that great wartime generation.

‘It is our privilege to hear that testimony, but our role is not purely passive.

‘It is our duty to ensure that we and future generations do not forget their service and their sacrifice in replacing tyranny with freedom.’

The King’s appearance at the event in Portsmouth was his first public speech and his most high-profile appearance since his cancer diagnosis.

Charles faced breezy conditions on stage as he spoke, with his speech notes blowing around in his hand.

At the show, he wore multiple medals and decorations, including the Queen’s Service Order (New Zealand); the Coronation Medal (for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation); four Jubilee Medals, the Order of Merit and the Naval Long Service medal.

After the event, he met with 21 veterans – with one sharing a joke with him and revealing that he had served on the same ship as the King’s father, the late Duke of Edinburgh.

Keith Whiting, 98, who served with the Royal Marines, said: ‘It was marvellous, we shared two or three jokes, I served on board the HMS Ramillies when Prince Philip was on there, so we talked about one or two things.

‘It was such a marvellous turnout.’

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a UK national commemorative event to mark the 80th anniversary commemorations of Allied amphibious landing (D-Day Landings) in France in 1944, in Southsea Common, in Portsmouth, southern England, on June 5, 2024. Heads of state and veterans are due to mark the anniversary of D-Day on June 6, a date that was key to Allied Europe's eventual victory against the Nazis in World War II. (Photo by Leon Neal / POOL / AFP) (Photo by LEON NEAL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Another veteran, Roy Hayward, 98, who served as a reserve tank crewman and landed on Gold Beach, met with the King after appearing on stage during the show.

After meeting members of the royal family, he said: ‘I thoroughly enjoyed every one of them, I thought they were super actually, I was most impressed by the way they chatted to me and were so friendly.

‘They asked me how I got on and how I had my legs blown off.’

At the Portsmouth commemorations, William read an extract from the diary of Captain Alastair Bannerman of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, a soldier who was part of D-Day, addressed to his wife on the morning of the landings.

He told the flag-waving crowd he was ‘deeply honoured’ to be part of proceedings on Southsea Common and said ‘we will always remember those who served’.

Britain's King Charles, Queen Camila and William, Prince of Wales, attend a D-Day national commemoration event in Portsmouth, Britain, June 5, 2024. Kin Cheung/Pool via REUTERS

William wore medals during his address, including the Great Master of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath around his neck, Golden, Diamond and Platinum Jubilee medals and a coronation medal.

The Prime Minister also wrote a piece for the programme, in which he said ‘we must never forget how much we owe’ those who took part in D-Day.

At the event, Rishi Sunak read an address by Field Marshal Montgomery, which was delivered to the troops ahead of the D-Day landings.

Dame Helen Mirren formally introduced the event at around 11 m, where she praised the bravery of the veterans in attendance.

Children waved miniature Union flags as actor Phil Dunster came on stage in 1940s military garb to read a letter written by Major Rodney Maude of the Royal Engineers 48 hours before D-Day.

Call The Midwife star Helen George led an ensemble of singers in a rendition of Dame Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again at the national commemorative event.

Veterans in the audience were seen singing along to the lyrics as members of the crowd waved Union flags.

The song, released in 1939, has become closely associated with the Second World War and became the basis of a 1943 musical of the same name set during the Blitz in London.

Some veterans will attend two days of remembrance events in Portsmouth to mark the historic milestone.

The Normandy landings were the largest seaborne invasion in history, with the 1944 battle laying the foundation for an Allied victory.

Troops from the UK, the US, Canada and France attacked German forces on the beaches at Normandy in northern France on June 6 1944.

Allied troops departed from Portsmouth on June 5, so the UK and French governments will host memorial events at both ports to commemorate the D-Day landings.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

For more stories like this, check our news page .

MORE : The Metro daily cartoon by Guy Venables

MORE : Killer nurse stole £17,000 from shop that gave her job after release from jail

MORE : Madeleine McCann suspect’s emails ‘link him to her disappearance’

Sign Up for News Updates

Get your need-to-know latest news, feel-good stories, analysis and more.

Get us in your feed

IMAGES

I Have A Dream Texte Anglais
Martin Luther King Jr I Have A Dream Full Text Speech Print Minimalist
Martin Luther King Speech I Have A Dream Lyrics
MARTIN LUTHER KING SPEECH: I HAVE A DREAM (FULL TEXT, VIDEO, LYRICS
I Have a Dream: Speech, Martin Luther King, JR, A3 Art Poster Print
Martin Luther King Jr Speech Lyrics / Martin Luther King Jr I Have A

VIDEO

M.O.D.~King Speech~Lyrics
The King's Speech Full Movie Review
Ex-King Gyanendra says seven parties had agreed to retain monarchy
The King's Speech 2010 Colin Firth Geoffrey Rush
Martin Luther King speech
The King's Speech Full Movie Facts And Review

COMMENTS

Futuristic
King Speech Lyrics: Always talk shit but my breath don't stink / Flow been runnin', better rest my sink / Cookin' these niggas, got the recipe / If they mess with me, rest in peace / Got drive like
PDF Full text to the I Have A Dream speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior
1. Full text to the "I Have A Dream" speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Martin Luther King I Have a Dream Speech
Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech text and audio . Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have a Dream. delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. ... (e.g., "hill" and "mountain" are reversed in the KJV). King's rendering of Isaiah 40:5, however, is precisely quoted from the KJV. 3 At: ...
Futuristic-King Speech Lyrics
Hope you enjoy and keep the song request coming!Note that i do not claim this song as mine it belongs to futuristic
Futuristic
Lady Leshurr Queen Speech Remix - "King Speech"Original Lady Leshurr video: http://bit.ly/1IQXPYVSubscribe to TheBuffNerds: http://bit.ly/subBuffNerdsBuffNer...
I Have a Dream Speech Transcript
Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 12:54) 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 ...
I Have a Dream
I Have a Dream, August 28, 1963, Educational Radio Network [1] " I Have a Dream " is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister [2] Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called for civil and economic rights and an end to ...
I have a Dream
Sit back, relax and enjoy the following Speech by Martin Luther King Jr. ( January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968 )King delivered this 17-minute speech on Wednesda...
FUTURISTIC
And it's like I won the lotto. Cause I'm always gettin' lucky. Now she lickin' my banana. Like a motherfuckin' monkey. And she not havin' my baby. But she feel me in her tummy. Let a nigga breathe. All these sick words in my notes, I think my phone has got a disease. My flow on Mufasa, long live the king.
(1963) Martin Luther King Jr., "I Have a Dream"
Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering "I have a dream" speech, March on Washington, August 28, 1963. Courtesy U.S. Library of Congress (2013645765) Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, remains his most memorable oration.
MLK's I Have A Dream Speech Video & Text
The "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. before a crowd of some 250,000 people at the 1963 March on Washington, remains one of the most famous speeches in history ...
"The King's Speech" (2010)
Movie Speech from The King's Speech- King George VI BBC Address to the Nation. : M ovie S peech. "The King's Speech" (2010) King George VI BBC Radio Address to the Nation Announcing WWII Outbreak. In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message, spoken ...
Transcript of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech : NPR
AFP via Getty Images. Monday marks Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Below is a transcript of his celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial ...
I've Been to the Mountaintop
The plaque outside the site of the speech, Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee "I've Been to the Mountaintop" is the popular name of the final speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. King spoke on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee. The speech primarily concerns the Memphis sanitation strike. ...
Our God is Marching On!
Our God is Marching On! 25 March 1965. Montgomery, Ala. My dear and abiding friends, Ralph Abernathy, and to all of the distinguished Americans seated here on the rostrum, my friends and co-workers of the state of Alabama, and to all of the freedom-loving people who have assembled here this afternoon from all over our nation and from all over ...
King Baldwin Iv: When I was sixteen I won a great victory. I felt in
A great memorable quote from the Kingdom of Heaven movie on Quotes.net - King Baldwin Iv: When I was sixteen I won a great victory. I felt in that moment that I should live to be one hundred, now I know I shall not see thirty. None of us know our end really, or what hand will guide us there. A King may move a man, a father may claim a son. That man can also move himself.
The King's Speech Transcript for King George VI
In his first speech, on 3 September 1939, King George VI said: "In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, for the second time in the lives of most of us we are at war. Over and over again we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences between ourselves and those who are now our enemies. But it has been in vain.
The King's Speech
The King's Speech is a 2010 historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays the future King George VI who, to cope with a stammer, sees Lionel Logue, an Australian speech and language therapist played by Geoffrey Rush.The men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates the throne, the new king relies on Logue to help him ...
Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Théoden says the second variant to the Riders of Rohan before their charge as he did in the book, the lyrics being slightly altered: Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! spear shall be shaken, shield shall be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
M.O.D.~King Speech~Lyrics
NOTE: Every Sunday I will be uplaoding three songs from this album. until the sunday before Christmas. IF YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO DO NOTE: Every Sunday I will b...
King Charles gives first public speech since cancer diagnosis at ...
King Charles gave his first public speech since his cancer diagnosis, speaking to an audience of WWII veterans in honor of the upcoming 80th anniversary of D-Day.
King and Queen appear emotional amid tributes to 'courage' of D-Day
The King said it was "our duty" to never forget the sacrifice made by the wartime generation in what was his first public speech since his cancer diagnosis. Wednesday 5 June 2024 22:03, UK
"You Can F***ing Live Your Dream!"- Theo Von Delivers Incredible
There's somebody out there who's got a size 11 foot in a size 8 tennis shoe, and I just wanna say you can f**king live your dream!'" The podcast editors then hilariously clip Von's impression with a portion of his CMA acceptance speech. "Every time Jelly gets an award, man. He just…he's so full of feeling, bro.
The D-Day story that made Queen Camilla cry
The King's appearance at the event in Portsmouth was his first public speech and his most high-profile appearance since his cancer diagnosis. ... Veterans in the audience were seen singing along ...
Mike Pinder, co-founder of the Moody Blues whose work on the Mellotron
Mike Pinder, who has died aged 82, co-founded the Moody Blues and was the last surviving member of the original line-up; though he played an array of keyboards and other instruments, it was his ...
Janet Yellen warns AI in finance poses 'significant risks'
Janet Yellen, US treasury secretary, following a bilateral meeting with Alexander De Croo, Belgium's prime minister, not pictured, at the Treasury Department in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, May ...

I Have a Dream Speech Transcript – Martin Luther King Jr.

Other Related Transcripts

Stay updated.

Submit Lyrics

FUTURISTIC - King Speech Lyrics

Add Comment

BlackPast is dedicated to providing a global audience with reliable and accurate information on the history of African America and of people of African ancestry around the world. We aim to promote greater understanding through this knowledge to generate constructive change in our society.

Cite this entry in APA format:

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

Civil Rights Movement Before the Speech

March on Washington

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech Origins

‘Free At Last’

Mahalia Jackson Prompts MLK: 'Tell 'em About the Dream, Martin'

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech Text

MLK Speech Reception

'I Have a Dream' Speech Legacy

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Sign up for Inside History

Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety

Code Switch

Martin Luther King is not your mascot

Throughline

How The Voting Rights Act Came To Be And How It's Changed

Nikole Hannah-Jones on the power of collective memory

Correction Jan. 15, 2024

Our God is Marching On!

Kingdom of Heaven 2005

Share your thoughts on this Kingdom of Heaven's quote with the community:

Report Comment

You need to be logged in to favorite .

Quote of the Day Today's Quote | Archive

Use the citation below to add this movie quote to your bibliography:

Know another quote from Kingdom of Heaven?

Browse Quotes.net

The King’s Speech

Ben Johnson

History in your inbox

Advertisement

Next article

Historic Allies and Enemies of Great Britain

Popular searches

King Charles gives first public speech since cancer diagnosis at D-Day event for veterans

King and Queen appear emotional amid tributes to 'courage' of D-Day veterans

Veterans take centre stage at emotional event

Related Topics

“You Can F***ing Live Your Dream!”- Theo Von Delivers Incredible Impersonation Of Jelly Roll’s Acceptance Speeches

MORE FROM WHISKEY RIFF

STAY ENTERTAINED

Never Miss Out

The D-Day story that made Camilla cry

Share this with

Sign Up for News Updates

IMAGES

VIDEO

COMMENTS