Authenticated Text and Audio |
"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 their 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 an exile in his own land." |
