It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. 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. 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. In a sense, we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. So we’ve come here today to dramatize the shameful condition. 100 years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. 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 life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity, but 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. 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. 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.įive score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
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