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Ten Major Civil Rights Speeches and Writings

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The speeches of America's civil rights leaders  Martin Luther King Jr. , Fannie Lou Hamer, Bayard Rustin, Kwame Ture, and others capture the spirit of the civil rights movement during its peak in the 1960s and early 1970s. King's writings and speeches, in particular, have endured for generations because they eloquently express the injustices that inspired the masses to take action. But the others on this list also illuminated the struggle for justice and equality by Black Americans.

Martin Luther King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

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King wrote this moving letter on April 16, 1963, while in prison for defying a state court order against demonstrating. He was responding to White clergy who had published a statement in the Birmingham News , criticizing King and other civil rights activists for their impatience. Pursue desegregation in the courts, the White clergymen urged, but do not hold these "demonstrations [that] are unwise and untimely."

King wrote that Black people in Birmingham were left with no choice but to demonstrate against the injustices they were suffering. He deplored the inaction of moderate White people, saying, "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice." His letter was a powerful defense of nonviolent direct action against oppressive laws.

Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech

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King gave his most famous speech as the keynote address at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. King’s wife, Coretta, later remarked that “at that moment, it seemed as if the Kingdom of God appeared. But it only lasted for a moment.”

King had written a speech beforehand but deviated from his prepared remarks. The most powerful part of his speech—beginning with “I have a dream”—was entirely unplanned. He had used similar words at previous civil rights gatherings, but his words resounded deeply with the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial and viewers watching live coverage of the march from home. President John F. Kennedy was impressed, and when the two met ​afterward, Kennedy greeted King with the words “I have a dream.”

Fannie Lou Hamer's Testimony to the Democratic National Convention, 1964

In late August 1962, Frannie Lou Hamer and several other Black Mississippi residents tried to register to vote at the county courthouse in Indianola, Mississippi. For her effort to exercise her constitutional rights, Hamer was fired from her job, shot at, and arrested. Highway patrol officers told her, "We are going to make you wish you was dead," and beat her repeatedly.

Hamer testified before the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on August 22, 1964. She related her ordeal and stated:

"All of this is on account of we want to register, to become first-class citizens. And if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?"

Bayard Rustin's Reflections on the 1963 March on Washington

Among his many accomplishments, Bayard Rustin helped organized the " Freedom Rides ," where Black and White activists traveled together throughout the Deep South to fight racial injustice; the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ; and the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was the executive director of the march and spoke at the event. He later reflected on the importance of the march as well as the purpose of the civil rights movement in general:

"What made the march was that Black people voted that day with their feet. They came from every state, they came in jalopies, on trains, buses, anything they could get—some walked. ... And after they came and saw that it was very orderly, that there was fantastic determination, that there were all kinds of people there other than Black people, they knew there was a consensus in this country for the civil rights bill. After the March on Washington, when Kennedy called into the White House the leaders who had been resistant before the march, he made it very clear to them now he was prepared to put his weight behind the bill."

After Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Rustin and other civil rights leaders helped to ensure the passage of that bill—the Civil Rights Act of 1964—less than a year after the march.

Kwame Ture on "Black Power" and Civil Rights Laws

Kwame Ture, whose birth name was Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael, was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in 1941 but moved to the United States at age 11. He eventually became involved in the civil rights movement and worked for a time for the  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee . In 1966, shortly after he was named chairman of the SNCC, Ture spoke about Black Power and the efforts to pass civil rights legislation in the U.S., saying, in part:

"I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for White people, not for Black people. For example, I am Black. I know that. I also know that while I am Black I am a human being. Therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people don’t know that. Every time I tried to go into a public place they stopped me. So some boys had to write a bill to tell that White man, 'He’s a human being; don’t stop him.' That bill was for the White man, not for me. I knew I could vote all the time and that it wasn’t a privilege but my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived."

Ture eventually left the SNCC because he was displeased with its emphasis on nonviolent protest. He joined the Black Panther Party in 1968, serving as the group's prime minister but left that group and the United States that same year. He changed his name from Carmichael to Ture and fought for equality across the world, helping to create the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party.

Ella Jo Baker on the Struggle for Civil Rights

In 1957, Ella Jo Baker helped King form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and, in 1960, helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Baker believed strongly in nonviolent protests such as the sit-ins organized by civil rights activists in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1969, Baker explained her philosophy and the mission of the civil rights movement:

"In order for us as poor and oppressed people to become part of a society that is meaningful, the system under which we now exist has to be radically changed. This means that we are going to have to learn to think in radical terms. I use the term radical in its original meaning–getting down to and understanding the root cause. It means facing a system that does not lend itself to your needs and devising means by which you change that system."

Today, the Ella Baker Center for Civil Rights in Oakland continues to carry out her mission, working to change the system and fight for civil rights and justice.

Lorraine Hansberry on the Problem With White Liberals

Lorraine Hansberry was a playwright, essayist, and civil rights activist best known for writing "A Raisin in the Sun." It was the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway when it was staged in 1959. But Hansberry was also an outspoken civil rights advocate and gave a striking speech at "The Black Revolution and the White Backlash" Forum at Town Hall sponsored by The Association of Artists for Freedom in New York City on June 15, 1964. In that speech, Hansberry criticized not White racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, but White liberals, stating:

"The problem is we have to find some way with these dialogues to show and to encourage the White liberal to stop being a liberal and become an American radical. I think that then it wouldn't—when that becomes true, some of the really eloquent things that were said before about the basic fabric of our society, which after all, is the thing which must be changed ... to really solve the problem. The basic organization of American society is the thing that has Negroes in the situation that they are in and never let us lose sight of it."

Hansberry made it clear that she and others in the movement believed White liberals were not doing enough to change society and help achieve racial justice.

Joseph Jackson on the Importance of Voting

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Joseph H. Jackson, president of the National Baptist Convention from 1953 to 1982, opposed "direct action civil rights," such as that practiced by Martin Luther King Jr. At the National Baptist Convention’s 84th annual meeting in Detroit, on September 19, 1964, he explained why he felt voting was a key method for achieving equality and racial justice:

"Negroes must become registered voters and fight their battles in the polling booth. In the coming campaign we must not allow our prejudices, our hatred for individuals, to lead us into emotional outbursts and disrespect. ... We must make [a] choice of the candidate whom we think will serve the best interest of this nation and the nation’s cause, and then take our ballot and help to elect our choice. As I told this convention in 1956, I tell you again, the ballot is our most important weapon. We must not neglect it, forfeit or sell it, but use it for the protection of the nation, the promotion of freedom, the promotion of every citizen, and for the glory of the United States of America."

Jackson believed that Black people should work quietly within the system to create change, without resorting to any protests, even peaceful ones.

James Baldwin's Pin Drop Speech

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James Baldwin , a noted American writer, social critic, and civil rights leader, was born in Harlem, New York, in 1924 but moved to France in 1948 to escape the racism he experienced in the U.S. In 1965, he gave a speech at Cambridge University, where he talked about his experiences living as a Black man in the U.S., as well as the racism and discrimination Black people in the United States encountered on a daily basis.

"Any American Negro watching this, no matter where he is, from the vantage point of Harlem, which is another terrible place, has to say to himself, in spite of what the government says—the government says we can’t do anything about it—but if those were White people being murdered in Mississippi work farms, being carried off to jail, if those were White children running up and down the streets, the government would find some way of doing something about it."

Baldwin was referring to the double standards Black people were exposed to, and he tried to get people to question the way the American government treats Black Americans.

Angela Davis's Embassy Auditorium Speech

Angela Davis , a scholar and political activist, has been a civil rights leader for decades and is highly regarded for her work on racial justice, prison reform, and women's rights. On June 9, 1972, she gave a speech at the Embassy Auditorium in Los Angeles where she questioned and challenged the unequal distribution of wealth in the U.S. She said in part:

"For when we see the rockets taking off towards the moon, and the B-52s raining destruction and death on the people of Vietnam, we know that something is wrong. We know that all we have to do is to redirect that wealth and that energy and channel it into food for the hungry, and to clothes for the needy; into schools, hospitals, housing, and all the material things that are necessary, all the material things that are necessary in order for human beings to lead decent, comfortable lives—in order to lead lives which are devoid of all the pressures of racism, and yes, male supremacist attitudes and institutions and all the other means with which the rulers manipulate the people. For only then can freedom take on a truly human meaning. Only then can we be free to live and to love and be creative human beings."

In another part of the speech, Davis said the unequal distribution of wealth created a situation where many "brown and Black [people] and working women and men" live in a condition that "bears a very striking similarity to the condition of the prisoner." Only a fair distribution of wealth would allow for a society that is more just and equal for all, she said.

• “ Bayard Rustin, the Gay Civil Rights Leader Who Organized the March on Washington .”  PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, 19 Sept. 2013.
• Corley, Cheryl. “ Bayard Rustin: The Man Who Organized The March On Washington .”  Vermont Public Radio .
• “ Fannie Lou Hamer .”  National Women's History Museum .
• Johanson, Karen. “ 50 Essential Civil Rights Speeches. ”  Stacker. 18 Jan. 2021.
• Salter, Daren. “ Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (1941-1998). ”  BlackPast. 5 Aug. 2018.
• “ Who Was Ella Baker? ”  Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.
• Biography of Diane Nash, Civil Rights Leader and Activist
• Biography of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights Leader
• Congress of Racial Equality: History and Impact on Civil Rights
• Biography of John Lewis, Civil Rights Activist and Politician
• Civil Rights Movement Timeline From 1960 to 1964
• Multicultural List of Civil Rights and Social Justice Activists
• Black History Timeline: 1960–1964
• Fannie Lou Hamer Quotes
• The Black Struggle for Freedom
• Important Cities in Black History
• The 'Big Six' Organizers of the Civil Rights Movement
• 5 Men Who Inspired Martin Luther King, Jr. to Be a Leader
• Organizations of the Civil Rights Movement
• Coretta Scott King Quotations
• Biography of Stokely Carmichael, Civil Rights Activist

50 Essential Civil Rights Speeches

Activists, athletes, actors, and preachers with sometimes-fiery presentation skills are just a few of the people who’ve communicated the message of civil rights to the masses.

When many people think of civil rights, the path to equality for the Black community comes to mind, but oration is equally as instrumental to civil rights movements too, especially those striving to secure equality for women, those who are older, and members of the LBGTQ+ community.

Our partners at Stacker compiled a list of 50 essential civil rights speeches using resources including BlackPast , TED , American RadioWorks , the Obama Foundation , and various other media and educational sources.

Almost everyone knows the names and the works of Martin Luther King Jr ., Malcolm X, and Barack Obama. But did you know one presenter, in particular, centered intersectionality in her speech to include a telling test that illustrated how visibility for some can be almost nonexistent? Even another key player in the civil rights movement of the ’60s was sometimes silenced because he was Black and gay.

Being incendiary was natural for some of these speakers, while others toed the line between creating change and avoiding offending more conservative elements of the movement.

Some of these speeches date back five decades into the past, but several others were delivered following the groundbreaking events of 2020 — from Black Lives Matter rallies to the 2020 March on Washington — which featured powerful orators, ranging from activists to professionals with doctorates to even a grade-school student.

Keep reading to discover 50 essential civil rights speeches.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘The Montgomery Bus Boycott’

Four days after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in 1955, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed thousands of people who were part of the subsequent boycott of the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama. He talked about the longtime intimidation of Black bus riders, and the importance of continuing the protest.

Related: The best quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. that go beyond the clichés

Related: The best quotes from Rosa Parks

Malcolm X’s ‘White Liberals and Conservatives’

Malcolm X talked in 1963 about the power of the vote to change the race problem, noting that only 3 million “Negro integration-seekers” in the “Black bourgeoisie” vote, but 8 million don’t. He proposed that both white liberals and conservatives use civil rights “in this crooked game of power politics” to garner power.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’

The civil rights leader penned this speech in 1963 while jailed for continuing to protest the mistreatment of Black people. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the interconnectedness of humanity, reminding us that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere—we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

Related: The best quotes from Martin Luther King Jr's daughter, Bernice King, about hope, justice, and love

John F. Kennedy’s 1963 address on civil rights

After National Guard assistance was required in 1963 to allow two Black students onto the University of Alabama campus, President John F. Kennedy reminded the nation that Americans of any color should be able to attend public schools, receive equal service, register to vote, and “enjoy the privileges of being American,” framing those rights as a moral issue. The stats he quoted to prove that this was not the case have changed over time, but many show that equality has not yet been achieved.

Related: The best John F. Kennedy quotes to leave you feeling inspired

John Lewis’ 1963 March on Washington speech

Before representing Georgia in Congress, John Lewis was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), organizing with other civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. Lewis drafted his “March on Washington” speech in response to the Civil Rights Bill of 1963 , stating that “we cannot be patient” for jobs and freedom and that “we are tired. We are tired of being beaten by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again.”

Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’

The civil rights icon called for an end to racism in front of more than 250,000 people in 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the lack of progress at that time, but almost 60 years later, the police brutality decried in this speech still exists, visible in the deaths of unarmed Black citizens and the protests that followed —perhaps most demonstratively were the Black Lives Matter protests that ensued following the killings of George Floyd , Ahmaud Arbery , and Breonna Taylor in 2020.

Malcolm X’s ‘By Any Means Necessary’

The Nation of Islam activist spoke in 1964 about the creation of a Black nationalist party based on the successes of African brothers in gaining “more independence, more recognition, more respect as human beings.” His new Organization of African Unity would hasten the “complete independence of people of African descent … by any means necessary,” starting in Harlem.

Malcolm X’s ‘The Ballot or the Bullet’

Malcolm X continued his incendiary tone in 1964 with his “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech, in which he advocated for voting but doesn’t rule out more violent reactions. He noted that Black people are “fed up,” “disenchanted,” and “disillusioned,” creating an explosive environment.

Fannie Lou Hamer’s 1964 Democratic National Convention testimony

Former sharecropper and civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer talked in 1964 about traveling 26 miles to register to vote to become “first-class citizens,” being met by police, and ultimately being evicted for her efforts. In her speech, she asked, “Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hook?”

Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘The Black Revolution and the White Backlash’

Not far off the mark from the commentary of Malcolm X, Lorraine Hansberry noted the “problem about white liberals,” who she asserted don’t understand the impatience of Black people who’ve been “kicked in the face so often.” Her 1964 speech also mentioned that the solution is to get them to “stop being a liberal and become an American radical.”

Joseph Jackson’s ‘The Vote is the Only Effective Weapon in the Civil Rights Struggle’

Baptist preacher Joseph Jackson talked about the interconnectedness of civil rights and voting rights in this 1964 speech. The conservative leader implored the Black community to “fight their battles in the polling booth,” but opposed the direct action taken by many other civil rights leaders of the time.

Bayard Rustin’s ‘Negro Revolution in 1965’

Bayard Rustin is relatively unknown in civil rights history, even though he was a major contributor to the movement, and acted as deputy director of the March on Washington.

In this 1964 speech , he said that “the Negro is forcing the American people into a revolutionary situation” focused on better education, housing, and job opportunities. Some wanted to silence Rustin because he was Black and gay.

James Baldwin’s ‘Pin Drop’

Writer and activist James Baldwin talked in 1965 about how it can seem to Black people that they “belong where white people have put you.”

He addressed how gentrification existed 55 years ago: “When someone says ‘Urban Renewal,’ that Negroes are simply going to be thrown out into the streets.”

He also warned how those who are excluded will rise up: “The people who are denied participation in [the American Dream], by their very presence, will wreck it.”

Related: The Best Quotes From James Baldwin

Lyndon B. Johnson’s ‘We Shall Overcome’

In 1965, following the atrocities of Bloody Sunday, President Lyndon B. Johnson called for voting and civil rights , stating, “Their cause must be our cause too.” Johnson had helped pass the Civil Rights Act the previous year, but he’d previously called a press conference to detract from testimony by Fannie Lou Hamer about voter suppression.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Our God is Marching On’

After a four-day march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the crowd, asking the question “How long will prejudice blind the visions of men?”—with the often-repeated answer, “Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” King hoped that racist brutality was coming to an end, but progress has continued to be spiked with beatings and deaths and new records in the number of hate groups .

Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘The Three Evils of Society’

Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the “triple evils” of war, poverty, and racism at the 1967 National Conference on New Politics in Chicago.

His thoughts on war talk about “guided missiles and misguided men,” while his insights on poverty and racism note that “capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor both black and white, both here and abroad.”

Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘The Other America’

Equality for all was another of Martin Luther King Jr.’s rallying cries. In this 1967 speech, he recognized that some people live on a “lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”

Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’

No collection of civil rights speeches would be complete without the hopeful presentation by Martin Luther King Jr. from the night before his assassination in 1968. Despite the roadblocks along the way, including the beatings and deaths of numerous people in the movement, the civil rights leader was still convinced that “we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”

Muhammad Ali’s ‘Wake Up and Apologize’

In a 1972 conversation with an Irish journalist, Muhammad Ali launched into a poetic assessment of what it’s like to face police brutality as a Black man. The GOAT noted, “Better far from all I see, to die fighting to be free, what more fitting end could be … let me die by being Black, better far that I should go, standing here against the foe is the sweeter death to know.”

Angela Davis’ ‘The Gates to Freedom’

Socialist and activist Angela Davis faced sexism while championing criminal justice reform and civil rights for the Black community, even being imprisoned as a result. After her trial, she gave this speech in 1972, suggesting that society “redirect that wealth … and channel it into food for the hungry , and to clothes for the needy; into schools, hospitals, housing, and all the material things that are necessary.” The ideas parallel current calls for reform.

Related: The Best Quotes About Hope, Optimism, and Cynicism

Related: The Best Quotes About Feeding the Hungry

Shirley Chisholm’s ‘The Black Woman in Contemporary America’

The first Black woman elected to Congress urged all Americans in 1974 to “Forget traditions! Forget conventionalisms! Forget what the world will say whether you're in your place or out of your place.” This mindset served her well when she put her name in the hat for president of the United States.

Jesse Jackson’s ‘Keep Hope Alive’

Two-time presidential candidate, activist, and organizer Jesse Jackson spoke to the Democratic National Convention in 1988 about finding common ground, decades before the divisiveness seen in recent years. “Progress will not come through boundless liberalism, nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival,” Jackson said.

John Lewis’ ‘You Cannot Tell People They Cannot Fall in Love’

The Georgia representative and civil rights organizer stepped up at the Defense of Marriage Act congressional debates in 1996 to tell the world, “You cannot tell people they cannot fall in love.” Lewis drew parallels between interracial and gay marriages in his reaction to the wording in the Act that defined marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s ‘America Beyond the Color Line’

Harvard professor and intellectual Henry Louis Gates Jr. spoke to the Commonwealth Club of California in 2004 about traveling all over the country to talk to Black people about their experiences, especially with racial equality. His interviews took place everywhere, from “Ebony Towers” and “Black Hollywood” to the inner city and all-Black communities in the South.

Barack Obama’s 2004 Democratic National Convention speech

Before he was even elected as a senator, Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 from the perspective of the child of parents who deemed him blessed to be in America. His speech considered the progress the country has made, but also how far we have to go.

Barack Obama’s ‘A More Perfect Union’

When former President Barack Obama was still a candidate in early 2008, he addressed America and its legacy of racism , talking about the original sin of slavery, and how the answer was already embedded in the Constitution “that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.” Continuing, he talked about how protests “on the streets and in the courts” have moved us closer to a “more just, more equal, more free, more caring, and more prosperous America.”

Barack Obama’s 2009 Inaugural Address

When President Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, his speech recognized the diversity of the American people with respect to race, religion, and more. His speech held out hope “that the old hatreds shall someday pass” and “that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve.” The year 2020 has shown us we haven’t reached that goal yet, but Obama’s speech promised that one day we will.

Bryan Stevenson’s ‘We Need to Talk About an Injustice’

Bryan Stevenson is a human rights lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Institute and its Legacy Museum , which educates people about the direct path from slavery to mass incarceration. In this 2012 TED Talk, he talks about injustices and the impact of the death penalty in a world where 10% of those on death row are ultimately exonerated.

Related: The Best Quotes By Activists About Activism

Barack Obama’s 2013 Inaugural Address

President Barack Obama took the opportunity of his second inauguration in 2013 to draw parallels between Black and women’s rights, fought for in Selma and Seneca Falls, to the Stonewall riots that were pivotal for the gay rights movement. His commitment to that cause was showcased in his comment that “our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” setting the stage for arguments to declare the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.

Related: The Best Quotes from Barack Obama

Vernā Myers’ ‘How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them’

In her 2014 TEDx Talk , diversity consultant Vernā Myers advised , “Stop trying to be good people, we need real people. Don't even think about colorblindness.”

Yoruba Richen’s ‘What the Gay Rights Movement Learned From the Civil Rights Movement’

Filmmaker Yoruba Richen, who is a part of both the Black and LGBTQ+ community, spoke in this 2014 TED Talk about her frustration concerning the supposed conflict between the two worlds, but realized that there was really more intersection. She explored how the LGBTQ+ community successfully used strategies and tactics used by the Black community in their own civil rights efforts.

John Lewis’ speech on 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

Fifty years after the Selma march that became known as Bloody Sunday because of the police abuse that almost killed him and other marchers, John Lewis returned to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 2015. Lewis reminded everyone , “We must use this moment to recommit ourselves to do all we can to finish the work. There is still work left to be done. Get out there and push and pull until we redeem the soul of America.”

Related: Lessons We Can Learn From the World's Leading Activists

Jimmy Carter’s ‘Why I Believe the Mistreatment of Women is the Number One Human Rights Abuse’

Former President of the United States Jimmy Carter posited in this 2015 TEDWomen Talk that abuse of women and girls is the major human rights abuse of our time, resulting from various reasons, including misinterpretation of scriptures and “men [who] don't give a damn.” He also outlined in his talk a number of abuses that are commonplace across the world. His Carter Center is committed to protecting and advancing human rights .

You can read Jimmy Carter's most inspiring quotes about human rights and hope in our curated guide.

Julian Bond’s ‘Declaration: We Must Practice Dissent’

From the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to the Southern Poverty Law Center and NAACP, Julian Bond has been a part of some of the major organizations of the civil rights movement. In his final speech in 2015, he continued to advocate for protest and dissent.

Barack Obama’s ‘Love is Love’

More than two years after advocating for marriage equality in his second inauguration, Barack Obama celebrated the downfall of part of the Defense of Marriage Act in 2015 with a speech in which he declared, “ Love is love.”

Jesse Williams’ 2016 BET Awards speech

Actor Jesse Williams’ speech at the 2016 BET Awards remembered the many Black people who were killed by police at the time, expressing, “We know that police somehow managed to deescalate, disarm, and not kill white people every day, so what’s gonna happen is we are gonna have equal rights and justice in our own country, or we will restructure their function and ours.” Mirroring the demands of other civil rights activists for action now, not later, he noted that “the hereafter is a hustle, we want it now.

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s ‘The Urgency of Intersectionality’

Kimberlé Crenshaw started her 2016 TEDWomen talk commemorating the names of people killed at the time by the hands of police, conducting an experiment that demonstrates that the women in that group are relatively unknown. Discrimination against Black women “feels like injustice squared,” asserted Crenshaw, who later invited the audience to use #SayHerName to bear witness to these women.

Related: Get to know these famous Black activists

Ashton Applewhite’s ‘Let’s End Ageism’

One type of discrimination that’s less considered in the civil rights realm is ageism. In this 2017 TED Talk , Ashton Applewhite called it the “last socially-acceptable prejudice.” Many fear getting old, even though the stats show that reality doesn’t match our fears. And prejudice of any type divides us. She implored us to get off the “hamster wheel of age denial.”

Daryl Davis’ ‘Why I, As a Black Man, Attend KKK Rallies’

Black musician Daryl Davis talked about the unusual evolution of a friendship between himself and a Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon in his 2017 TEDx Talk. His takeaway from the experience: “Hate stems from fear of the unknown. Take the time to sit down and talk with your adversaries. You’ll learn something; they'll learn something.” Amid his friendship, Davis revealed the Grand Dragon actually left the Klan.

Oprah Winfrey’s 2018 Golden Globes speech

The #MeToo movement played a prominent part in Oprah Winfrey’s acceptance speech as she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2018 Golden Globes. Winfrey gave gratitude to the women who survived abuse and assault because they had “children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue.”

Melinda Epler’s ‘3 Ways to Be a Better Ally in the Workplace’

Civil rights efforts need the collaboration and contribution of allies. Oftentimes, it’s not an employee who is failing, but the culture, due to microaggressions and other barriers. In this 2018 TED Salon talk, Melinda Epler shared specific ways to support those facing discrimination.

Samy Nour Younes’ ‘A Short History of Trans People’s Long Fight for Equality’

This 2018 TED Talk about the centuries-old history of trans people noted that their existence is not new, and explored both the struggles and triumphs of the community. The topic was and still is a matter of urgency—more than 50 transgender and gender-nonconforming people , mostly Black and Latinx women, were killed in 2021 alone.

John Lewis’ ‘Good Trouble’

Returning in 2020 to the Edmund Pettus Bridge , where police abused him 55 years earlier on Bloody Sunday, Georgia Rep. John Lewis implored to the crowd: “Go out there, speak up, speak out. Get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” Lewis himself had gotten into plenty of “good trouble” over the years, being arrested more than 40 times as the result of civil disobedience during his lifelong fight for civil rights.

Andre Williams’ 2020 police brutality speech

At a 2020 Black Lives Matter march, NFL star Andre Williams reminded others , “Guess what, in the morning we still wake up Black, and we cannot continue to allow the people to oppress the African American community.” He begged them to “be the voice for Black people.”

Barack Obama’s ‘Reimagining Policing in the Wake of Continued Police Violence’

In his speech in response to the wave of police violence in 2020, former President Barack Obama stated : “I’ve been hearing a little bit of chatter on the internet about voting versus protest, politics, and participation versus civil disobedience and direct action. This is not either/or, this is both/and, to bring about real change. Because they kept marching, America changed. We’ll get back up, that’s how movement happens, that's how history bends.”

John Boyega’s 2020 Black Lives Matter protest speech

British actor John Boyega spoke out at a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in London, prefacing, “I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this.” He talked about his own experience and those of others, adding, “Every Black person understands and realizes the first time you were reminded that you were Black. I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing.”

Playon Patrick’s ‘2020 Quarantine Killings’

Playon Patrick was part of the Obama Foundation Conversation with former President Barack Obama about reimagining policing in 2020. His spoken word performance talked about the experience of Black boys in this country. “We are early graves before we are anything else,” Patrick said. “Always conflicted between being Black and being people. I wish God could give us a choice.”

Yolanda Renee King’s 2020 March on Washington speech

The civil rights leader’s granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King, channeled MLK in this powerful speech at the 2020 March on Washington . She noted that “great challenges produce great leaders: We have mastered the selfie and TikToks, now we must master ourselves.” She proclaimed that her generation was going to be “the one that moves from me to we—we are going to be the generation that dismantles systemic racism once and for all.”

Ayanna Pressley’s 2020 March on Washington speech

Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley “let it play” at the 2020 March on Washington, reminding us, “Another world is possible. Yes, it is possible to legislate justice and accountability, people over profits, joy over trauma, freedom over fear. Yes, it is possible to write budgets that actually value Black lives. If it feels unfamiliar, that’s because it has never been done in America.”

Martin Luther King III’s 2020 March on Washington speech

The son of the civil rights icon spoke out at the 2020 March on Washington, in which he talked about America’s “rocky but righteous journey towards justice” and advocated for “demilitarizing the police, dismantling mass incarceration, and declaring that Black Lives Matter.” Voting was another focus of this speech, as King urged listeners to start “marching to the ballot boxes, and the mailboxes” to defend our freedoms.

This article was first published by Stacker . ( CC BY-NC 4.0 )

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50 essential civil rights speeches

Activists, athletes, actors, and preachers with sometimes-fiery presentation skills are just a few of the people who've communicated the message of civil rights to the masses.

When many people think of civil rights, the path to equality for the Black community comes to mind, but oration is equally as instrumental to civil rights movements too, especially those striving to secure equality for women, those who are older, and members of the LBGTQ+ community.

Stacker compiled a list of 50 essential civil rights speeches using such resources as  BlackPast , TED , American RadioWorks , the Obama Foundation , and various other media and educational sources.

Almost everyone knows the names and works of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Barack Obama. But did you know one presenter, in particular, centered intersectionality in her speech to include a telling test that illustrated how visibility for some can be almost nonexistent? Or that another key player in the civil rights movement of the '60s was sometimes silenced because he was Black and gay?

Being incendiary was natural for some of these speakers, while others toed the line between creating change and avoiding offending more conservative elements of the movement. Some of these speeches date back five decades into the past, but several others were delivered following the groundbreaking events of the 2020s—from Black Lives Matter rallies to the 2020 March on Washington—which featured powerful orators, ranging from activists to professionals with doctorates to even a grade school student.

Keep reading to discover 50 essential civil rights speeches.

You may also like: 'I Have a Dream' and the rest of the greatest speeches of the 20th century

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'The Montgomery Bus Boycott'

Four days after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in 1955, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed thousands of people who were part of the subsequent boycott of the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama. He talked about the longtime intimidation of Black bus riders and the importance of continuing the protest.

Malcolm X's 'White Liberals and Conservatives'

Malcolm X talked in 1963 about the power of the vote to change the race problem, noting that only 3 million "Negro integration-seekers" in the "Black bourgeoisie" vote, but 8 million do not. He proposed that white liberals and conservatives use civil rights "in this crooked game of power politics" to garner power.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'

The civil rights leader penned this speech in 1963 while jailed for continuing to protest the mistreatment of Black people. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the interconnectedness of humanity, reminding us that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere—we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."

John F. Kennedy's 1963 address on civil rights

After National Guard assistance was required in 1963 to allow two Black students onto the University of Alabama campus, President John F. Kennedy reminded the nation that Americans of any color should be able to attend public schools, receive equal service, register to vote, and "enjoy the privileges of being American," framing those rights as a moral issue. The stats he quoted to prove that this was not the case have changed over time, but many show that equality has not yet been achieved.

John Lewis' 1963 March on Washington speech

Before representing Georgia in Congress, John Lewis was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, organizing with other civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. Lewis drafted his  "March on Washington" speech in  response to the Civil Rights Bill of 1963 , where, in addition to expressing urgency for jobs and freedom, he implored: "We are tired. We are tired of being beaten by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again."

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream'

The civil rights icon  called for an end to racism in front of more than 250,000 people in 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the lack of progress at that time, but almost 60 years later, the police brutality decried in this speech still exists. This fact is visible in the  deaths of unarmed Black citizens  and the  resulting protests —perhaps most demonstratively the Black Lives Matter protests that ensued following the killings of George Floyd , Ahmaud Arbery , and Breonna Taylor in 2020.

Malcolm X's 'By Any Means Necessary'

The Nation of Islam activist spoke in 1964 about the creation of a Black nationalist party based on the successes of African brothers in gaining "more independence, more recognition, more respect as human beings." His new Organization of African Unity would hasten the "complete independence of people of African descent … by any means necessary," starting in Harlem.

Malcolm X's 'The Ballot or the Bullet'

Malcolm X continued his incendiary tone in 1964 with his   "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech, in which he advocated for voting but doesn't rule out more violent reactions. He noted that Black people are "fed up," "disenchanted," and "disillusioned," creating an explosive environment.

Fannie Lou Hamer's 1964 Democratic National Convention testimony

Former sharecropper and civil rights activist  Fannie Lou Hamer talked in 1964 about traveling 26 miles to register to vote to become "first-class citizens," being met by police, and ultimately being evicted for her efforts. In her speech, she asked, "Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hook?"

Lorraine Hansberry's 'The Black Revolution and the White Backlash'

Not far off the mark from the commentary of Malcolm X,  Lorraine Hansberry noted the "problem about white liberals," who she asserted don't understand the impatience of Black people who've been "kicked in the face so often." Her 1964 speech also mentioned that the solution is to get them to "stop being a liberal and become an American radical."

Joseph Jackson's 'The Vote is the Only Effective Weapon in the Civil Rights Struggle'

Baptist preacher Joseph Jackson discussed the interconnectedness of civil rights and voting rights in this 1964 speech. The conservative leader urged the Black community to "fight their battles in the polling booth" but opposed the direct action taken by many other civil rights leaders of the time.

Bayard Rustin's 'Negro Revolution in 1965'

Bayard Rustin is relatively unknown in civil rights history, even though he was a major contributor to the movement and acted as deputy director of the March on Washington. In this 1964 speech , he said that "the Negro is forcing the American people into a revolutionary situation" focused on better education, housing, and job opportunities. Some wanted to silence Rustin because he was Black and gay.

James Baldwin's 'Pin Drop'

Writer and activist  James Baldwin talked in 1965 about how it can seem to Black people that they "belong where white people have put you." He addressed how gentrification existed 55 years ago: "When someone says 'Urban Renewal,' that Negroes are simply going to be thrown out into the streets." He also warned how those excluded will rise up, cautioning, "The people who are denied participation in [the American Dream], by their very presence, will wreck it."

Lyndon B. Johnson's 'We Shall Overcome'

In 1965, following the atrocities of Bloody Sunday, President  Lyndon B. Johnson called  for  voting and civil rights , stating, "Their cause must be our cause too." Johnson had helped pass the Civil Rights Act the previous year, but he'd previously called a press conference to  detract from testimony by Fannie Lou Hamer about voter suppression.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Our God is Marching On'

After a four-day  march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the crowd, asking the question, "How long will prejudice blind the visions of men?" with the often-repeated answer, "Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." King had hoped racist brutality was coming to an end, but progress has continued to be spiked with beatings and deaths and  new records in the number of hate groups .

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'The Three Evils of Society'

Martin Luther King Jr.  discussed  the "triple evils" of war, poverty, and racism at the 1967 National Conference on New Politics in Chicago. His thoughts on war talk about "guided missiles and misguided men," while his insights on poverty and racism note that "capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of Black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor both Black and white, both here and abroad."

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'The Other America'

Equality for all was another of Martin Luther King Jr.'s rallying cries. In this 1967 speech, he recognized that some people live on a "lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I've Been to the Mountaintop'

No collection of civil rights speeches would be complete without the hopeful  presentation by Martin Luther King Jr. from the night before his assassination in 1968. Despite the roadblocks along the way, including the beatings and deaths of numerous people in the movement, the civil rights leader was still convinced that "we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

Muhammad Ali's 'Wake Up and Apologize'

In a 1972 conversation with an Irish journalist,  Muhammad Ali launched into a poetic assessment of what it's like to face police brutality as a Black man. The boxing great said: "Better far from all I see, to die fighting to be free, what more fitting end could be … let me die by being Black, better far that I should go, standing here against the foe is the sweeter death to know."

Angela Davis' 'The Gates to Freedom'

Socialist and activist Angela Davis faced sexism while championing criminal justice reform and civil rights for the Black community, even being imprisoned as a result. After her trial,  she gave this speech in 1972, suggesting that society "redirect that wealth … and channel it into food for the hungry, and to clothes for the needy; into schools, hospitals, housing, and all the material things that are necessary." The ideas parallel current calls for reform.

Shirley Chisholm's 'The Black Woman in Contemporary America'

The first Black woman elected to Congress  urged all Americans in 1974 to "Forget traditions! Forget conventionalisms! Forget what the world will say whether you're in your place or out of your place." This mindset served her well when she put her name in the hat for president of the United States.

Jesse Jackson's 'Keep Hope Alive'

Two-time presidential candidate, activist, and organizer  Jesse Jackson spoke to the Democratic National Convention in 1988 about finding common ground, decades before the divisiveness seen in recent years. "Progress will not come through boundless liberalism, nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival," Jackson said.

John Lewis' 'You Cannot Tell People They Cannot Fall in Love'

The Georgia representative and civil rights organizer stepped up at the  Defense of Marriage Act congressional debates in 1996 to tell the world, "You cannot tell people they cannot fall in love." Lewis drew parallels between interracial and gay marriages in his reaction to the wording in the Act that defined marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s 'America Beyond the Color Line'

Harvard professor and intellectual  Henry Louis Gates Jr. spoke to the Commonwealth Club of California in 2004 about traveling all over the country to talk to Black people about their experiences, especially regarding racial equality. His interviews took place everywhere, from "Ebony Towers" and "Black Hollywood" to the inner city and all-Black communities in the South.

Barack Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention speech

Before he was even elected as a senator,  Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 from the perspective of the child of parents who deemed him blessed to be in America. His speech considered the progress the country has made but also how far we have to go.

Barack Obama's 'A More Perfect Union'

When former President Barack Obama was still a candidate in early 2008, he  addressed America and its legacy of racism , talking about the original sin of slavery and how the answer was already embedded in the Constitution "that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time." Continuing, he talked about how protests "on the streets and in the courts" have moved us closer to a "more just, more equal, more free, more caring, and more prosperous America."

Barack Obama's 2009 Inaugural Address

When former President Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009,  his speech recognized the diversity of the American people concerning race, religion, and more. His speech held out hope "that the old hatreds shall someday pass" and "that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve." The year 2020 has shown us we haven't reached that goal yet, but Obama's speech promised that one day we will.

Bryan Stevenson's 'We Need to Talk About an Injustice'

Bryan Stevenson is a human rights lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Institute and its  Legacy Museum , which educates people about the direct path from slavery to mass incarceration. In this 2012  TED Talk, he talks about injustices and the impact of the death penalty in a world where 10% of those on death row are ultimately exonerated.

Barack Obama's 2013 Inaugural Address

President Barack Obama took the opportunity of his second inauguration in 2013 to  draw parallels between Black and women's rights, fought for in Selma and Seneca Falls, to the Stonewall riots that were pivotal for the gay rights movement. His commitment to that cause was showcased in his comment that "our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law," setting the stage for arguments to declare the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.

Vernā Myers' 'How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them'

In her 2014 TEDx Talk,  diversity consultant Vernā Myers advised : "Stop trying to be good people, we need real people. Don't even think about colorblindness."

Yoruba Richen's 'What the Gay Rights Movement Learned From the Civil Rights Movement'

Filmmaker Yoruba Richen, who is a part of both the Black and LGBTQ+ community,  spoke in this 2014 TED Talk about her frustration concerning the supposed conflict between the two worlds, but realized that there was really more intersection. She explored how the LGBTQ+ community successfully used strategies and tactics used by the Black community in their own civil rights efforts.

John Lewis' speech on 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

Fifty years after the march in Selma, Alabama, that became known as Bloody Sunday  because of the police abuse that almost killed him, John Lewis returned to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 2015. Lewis reminded everyone : "We must use this moment to recommit ourselves to do all we can to finish the work. There is still work left to be done. Get out there and push and pull until we redeem the soul of America."

Jimmy Carter's 'Why I Believe the Mistreatment of Women is the Number One Human Rights Abuse'

Former  President of the United States Jimmy Carter posited in this 2015 TEDWomen Talk that abuse of women and girls is the major human rights abuse of our time, resulting from various reasons, including misinterpretation of scriptures and "men [who] don't give a damn." He also outlined in his talk several abuses that are commonplace across the world. His Carter Center is committed to  protecting and advancing human rights .

Julian Bond's 'Declaration: We Must Practice Dissent'

From the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to the Southern Poverty Law Center and NAACP, Julian Bond has been a part of some of the major organizations of the civil rights movement. In his final speech in 2015, he continued to advocate for protest and dissent.

Barack Obama's 'Love is Love'

More than two years after advocating for marriage equality in his second inauguration,  Barack Obama celebrated the downfall of part of the Defense of Marriage Act in 2015 with a speech in which he declared, " Love is love."

Jesse Williams' 2016 BET Awards speech

Actor Jesse Williams' speech at the 2016 BET Awards remembered the many Black people who were killed by police at the time, expressing: "We know that police somehow managed to deescalate, disarm, and not kill white people every day, so what's gonna happen is we are gonna have equal rights and justice in our own country, or we will restructure their function and ours." Mirroring the demands of other civil rights activists for action now, not later, he noted that "the hereafter is a hustle, we want it now."

Kimberlé Crenshaw's 'The Urgency of Intersectionality'

Kimberlé Crenshaw started her 2016 TEDWomen talk commemorating the names of people killed at the time by the hands of police, conducting an experiment demonstrating that the women in that group are relatively unknown. Discrimination against Black women "feels like injustice squared," asserted Crenshaw, who later invited the audience to use #SayHerName to bear witness to these women.

Ashton Applewhite's 'Let's End Ageism'

One type of discrimination that's less considered in the civil rights realm is ageism. In this 2017 TED Talk, Ashton Applewhite called it the "last socially acceptable prejudice." Many fear getting old, even though the stats show that reality doesn't match our fears. And prejudice of any type divides us. She implored us to get off the "hamster wheel of age denial."

Daryl Davis' 'Why I, As a Black Man, Attend KKK Rallies'

Black musician Daryl Davis talked about the unusual evolution of a friendship between himself and a Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon in his 2017 TEDx Talk. His takeaway from the experience: "Hate stems from fear of the unknown. Take the time to sit down and talk with your adversaries. You'll learn something; they'll learn something." Amid his friendship, Davis revealed the Grand Dragon actually left the Klan.

Oprah Winfrey's 2018 Golden Globes speech

The #MeToo movement played a prominent part in  Oprah Winfrey's acceptance speech  as she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2018 Golden Globes. Winfrey gave gratitude to the women who survived abuse and assault because they had "children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue."

Melinda Epler's '3 Ways to Be a Better Ally in the Workplace'

Civil rights efforts need the collaboration and contribution of allies. Oftentimes, it's not an employee who is failing but the culture, due to microaggressions and other barriers. In this 2018 TED Salon talk,  Melinda Epler shared specific ways to support those facing discrimination.

Samy Nour Younes' 'A Short History of Trans People's Long Fight for Equality'

This 2018 TED Talk about the centuries-old history of trans people noted that their existence is not new and explored both the struggles and triumphs of the community. The topic was and still is an urgent matter; more than 50 transgender and gender-nonconforming people , mostly Black and Latinx women, were killed in 2021 alone.

John Lewis' 'Good Trouble'

Returning in 2020 to the Edmund Pettus Bridge , where police abused him 55 years earlier on Bloody Sunday, Georgia  Rep. John Lewis implored the crowd: "Go out there, speak up, speak out. Get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America." Lewis himself had gotten into plenty of "good trouble" over the years, being arrested over 40 times due to civil disobedience during his lifelong fight for civil rights.

Andre Williams' 2020 police brutality speech

At a 2020 Black Lives Matter march, NFL star  Andre Williams reminded others , "Guess what, in the morning, we still wake up Black, and we cannot continue to allow the people to oppress the African American community." He begged them to "be the voice for Black people."

Barack Obama's 'Reimagining Policing in the Wake of Continued Police Violence'

In his speech in response to the wave of police violence in 2020, former  President Barack Obama stated : "I've been hearing a little bit of chatter on the internet about voting versus protest, politics, and participation versus civil disobedience and direct action. This is not either/or, this is both/and, to bring about real change. Because they kept marching, America changed. We'll get back up, that's how movement happens, that's how history bends."

John Boyega's 2020 Black Lives Matter protest speech

British actor John Boyega spoke out at a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in London, prefacing, "I don't know if I'm going to have a career after this." He talked about his own experience and those of others, adding: "Every Black person understands and realizes the first time you were reminded that you were Black. I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing."

Playon Patrick's '2020 Quarantine Killings'

Playon Patrick was part of the Obama Foundation Conversation with former President Barack Obama about reimagining policing in 2020.  His spoken-word performance talked about the experience of Black boys in America. "We are early graves before we are anything else," Patrick said. "Always conflicted between being Black and being people. I wish God could give us a choice."

Yolanda Renee King's 2020 March on Washington speech

Yolanda Renee King channeled her civil rights leader grandfather in this  powerful speech at the 2020 March on Washington . She noted that "great challenges produce great leaders: We have mastered the selfie and Tik Toks, now we must master ourselves." She proclaimed that her generation would be "the one that moves from me to we—we are going to be the generation that dismantles systemic racism once and for all."

Ayanna Pressley's 2020 March on Washington speech

Massachusetts Rep.  Ayanna Pressley "let it play" at the 2020 March on Washington, reminding us: "Another world is possible. Yes, it is possible to legislate justice and accountability, people over profits, joy over trauma, freedom over fear. Yes, it is possible to write budgets that actually value Black lives. If it feels unfamiliar, that's because it has never been done in America."

Martin Luther King III's 2020 March on Washington speech

The son of the civil rights icon spoke out at the 2020 March on Washington, in which he talked about America's "rocky but righteous journey towards justice" and advocated for "demilitarizing the police, dismantling mass incarceration, and declaring that Black Lives Matter." Voting was another focus of this speech, as King urged listeners to start "marching to the ballot boxes and the mailboxes" to defend our freedoms.

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(1963) malcolm x, “message to the grassroots”.

On December 10, 1963, while still the leading spokesman for the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X gave a speech at a rally in Detroit, Michigan.  That speech outlined his basic black nationalist philosophy and established him as a major critic of the civil rights movement.  The speech appears below.

And during the few moments that we have left, we want to have just an off-the-cuff chat between you and me — us. We want to talk right down to earth in a language that everybody here can easily understand. We all agree tonight, all of the speakers have agreed, that America has a very serious problem. Not only does America have a very serious problem, but our people have a very serious problem. America’s problem is us. We’re her problem. The only reason she has a problem is she doesn’t want us here. And every time you look at yourself, be you black, brown, red, or yellow — a so-called Negro — you represent a person who poses such a serious problem for America because you’re not wanted. Once you face this as a fact, then you can start plotting a course that will make you appear intelligent, instead of unintelligent.

What you and I need to do is learn to forget our differences. When we come together, we don’t come together as Baptists or Methodists. You don’t catch hell ’cause you’re a Baptist, and you don’t catch hell ’cause you’re a Methodist. You don’t catch hell ’cause you’re a Methodist or Baptist. You don’t catch hell because you’re a Democrat or a Republican. You don’t catch hell because you’re a Mason or an Elk. And you sure don’t catch hell ’cause you’re an American; ’cause if you was an American, you wouldn’t catch no hell. You catch hell ’cause you’re a black man. You catch hell, all of us catch hell, for the same reason.

So we are all black people, so-called Negroes, second-class citizens, ex-slaves. You are nothing but a ex-slave. You don’t like to be told that. But what else are you? You are ex-slaves. You didn’t come here on the “Mayflower.” You came here on a slave ship — in chains, like a horse, or a cow, or a chicken. And you were brought here by the people who came here on the “Mayflower.” You were brought here by the so-called Pilgrims, or Founding Fathers. They were the ones who brought you here.

We have a common enemy. We have this in common: We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator. But once we all realize that we have this common enemy, then we unite on the basis of what we have in common. And what we have foremost in common is that enemy — the white man. He’s an enemy to all of us. I know some of you all think that some of them aren’t enemies. Time will tell.

In Bandung back in, I think, 1954, was the first unity meeting in centuries of black people. And once you study what happened at the Bandung conference, and the results of the Bandung conference, it actually serves as a model for the same procedure you and I can use to get our problems solved. At Bandung all the nations came together. Their were dark nations from Africa and Asia. Some of them were Buddhists. Some of them were Muslim. Some of them were Christians. Some of them were Confucianists; some were atheists. Despite their religious differences, they came together. Some were communists; some were socialists; some were capitalists. Despite their economic and political differences, they came together. All of them were black, brown, red, or yellow. The number-one thing that was not allowed to attend the Bandung conference was the white man. He couldn’t come. Once they excluded the white man, they found that they could get together. Once they kept him out, everybody else fell right in and fell in line. This is the thing that you and I have to understand. And these people who came together didn’t have nuclear weapons; they didn’t have jet planes; they didn’t have all of the heavy armaments that the white man has. But they had unity.

They were able to submerge their little petty differences and agree on one thing: That though one African came from Kenya and was being colonized by the Englishman, and another African came from the Congo and was being colonized by the Belgian, and another African came from Guinea and was being colonized by the French, and another came from Angola and was being colonized by the Portuguese. When they came to the Bandung conference, they looked at the Portuguese, and at the Frenchman, and at the Englishman, and at the other — Dutchman — and learned or realized that the one thing that all of them had in common: they were all from Europe, they were all Europeans, blond, blue-eyed and white-skinned. They began to recognize who their enemy was. The same man that was colonizing our people in Kenya was colonizing our people in the Congo. The same one in the Congo was colonizing our people in South Africa, and in Southern Rhodesia, and in Burma, and in India, and in Afghanistan, and in Pakistan. They realized all over the world where the dark man was being oppressed, he was being oppressed by the white man; where the dark man was being exploited, he was being exploited by the white man. So they got together under this basis — that they had a common enemy.

And when you and I here in Detroit and in Michigan and in America who have been awakened today look around us, we too realize here in America we all have a common enemy, whether he’s in Georgia or Michigan, whether he’s in California or New York. He’s the same man: blue eyes and blond hair and pale skin — same man. So what we have to do is what they did. They agreed to stop quarreling among themselves. Any little spat that they had, they’d settle it among themselves, go into a huddle — don’t let the enemy know that you got a disagreement.

Instead of us airing our differences in public, we have to realize we’re all the same family. And when you have a family squabble, you don’t get out on the sidewalk. If you do, everybody calls you uncouth, unrefined, uncivilized, savage. If you don’t make it at home, you settle it at home; you get in the closet — argue it out behind closed doors. And then when you come out on the street, you pose a common front, a united front. And this is what we need to do in the community, and in the city, and in the state. We need to stop airing our differences in front of the white man. Put the white man out of our meetings, number one, and then sit down and talk shop with each other. [That’s] all you gotta do.

I would like to make a few comments concerning the difference between the black revolution and the Negro revolution. There’s a difference. Are they both the same? And if they’re not, what is the difference? What is the difference between a black revolution and a Negro revolution? First, what is a revolution? Sometimes I’m inclined to believe that many of our people are using this word “revolution” loosely, without taking careful consideration [of] what this word actually means, and what its historic characteristics are. When you study the historic nature of revolutions, the motive of a revolution, the objective of a revolution, and the result of a revolution, and the methods used in a revolution, you may change words. You may devise another program. You may change your goal and you may change your mind.

Look at the American Revolution in 1776. That revolution was for what? For land. Why did they want land? Independence. How was it carried out? Bloodshed. Number one, it was based on land, the basis of independence. And the only way they could get it was bloodshed. The French Revolution — what was it based on? The land-less against the landlord. What was it for? Land. How did they get it? Bloodshed. Was no love lost; was no compromise; was no negotiation. I’m telling you, you don’t know what a revolution is. ‘Cause when you find out what it is, you’ll get back in the alley; you’ll get out of the way. The Russian Revolution — what was it based on? Land. The land-less against the landlord. How did they bring it about? Bloodshed. You haven’t got a revolution that doesn’t involve bloodshed. And you’re afraid to bleed. I said, you’re afraid to bleed.

[As] long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people. But when it comes time to seeing your own churches being bombed and little black girls be murdered, you haven’t got no blood. You bleed when the white man says bleed; you bite when the white man says bite; and you bark when the white man says bark. I hate to say this about us, but it’s true. How are you going to be nonviolent in Mississippi, as violent as you were in Korea? How can you justify being nonviolent in Mississippi and Alabama, when your churches are being bombed, and your little girls are being murdered, and at the same time you’re going to violent with Hitler, and Tojo, and somebody else that you don’t even know?

If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it’s wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it’s wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.

The Chinese Revolution — they wanted land. They threw the British out, along with the Uncle Tom Chinese. Yeah, they did. They set a good example. When I was in prison, I read an article — don’t be shocked when I say I was in prison. You’re still in prison. That’s what America means: prison. When I was in prison, I read an article in Life magazine showing a little Chinese girl, nine years old; her father was on his hands and knees and she was pulling the trigger ’cause he was an Uncle Tom Chinaman, When they had the revolution over there, they took a whole generation of Uncle Toms — just wiped them out. And within ten years that little girl become a full-grown woman. No more Toms in China. And today it’s one of the toughest, roughest, most feared countries on this earth — by the white man. ‘Cause there are no Uncle Toms over there.

Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research. And when you see that you’ve got problems, all you have to do is examine the historic method used all over the world by others who have problems similar to yours. And once you see how they got theirs straight, then you know how you can get yours straight. There’s been a revolution, a black revolution, going on in Africa. In Kenya, the Mau Mau were revolutionaries; they were the ones who made the word “Uhuru” [Kenyan word for “freedom”]. They were the ones who brought it to the fore. The Mau Mau, they were revolutionaries. They believed in scorched earth. They knocked everything aside that got in their way, and their revolution also was based on land, a desire for land. In Algeria, the northern part of Africa, a revolution took place.

The Algerians were revolutionists; they wanted land. France offered to let them be integrated into France. They told France: to hell with France. They wanted some land, not some France. And they engaged in a bloody battle. So I cite these various revolutions, brothers and sisters, to show you — you don’t have a peaceful revolution. You don’t have a turn-the-other-cheek revolution. There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution. [The] only kind of revolution that’s nonviolent is the Negro revolution. The only revolution based on loving your enemy is the Negro revolution. The only revolution in which the goal is a desegregated lunch counter, a desegregated theater, a desegregated park, and a desegregated public toilet; you can sit down next to white folks on the toilet. That’s no revolution. Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.

The white man knows what a revolution is. He knows that the black revolution is world-wide in scope and in nature. The black revolution is sweeping Asia, sweeping Africa, is rearing its head in Latin America. The Cuban Revolution — that’s a revolution. They overturned the system. Revolution is in Asia. Revolution is in Africa. And the white man is screaming because he sees revolution in Latin America. How do you think he’ll react to you when you learn what a real revolution is? You don’t know what a revolution is. If you did, you wouldn’t use that word.

A revolution is bloody. Revolution is hostile. Revolution knows no compromise. Revolution overturns and destroys everything that gets in its way. And you, sitting around here like a knot on the wall, saying, “I’m going to love these folks no matter how much they hate me.” No, you need a revolution. Whoever heard of a revolution where they lock arms, as Reverend Cleage was pointing out beautifully, singing “We Shall Overcome”? Just tell me. You don’t do that in a revolution. You don’t do any singing; you’re too busy swinging. It’s based on land. A revolutionary wants land so he can set up his own nation, an independent nation. These Negroes aren’t asking for no nation. They’re trying to crawl back on the plantation.

When you want a nation, that’s called nationalism. When the white man became involved in a revolution in this country against England, what was it for? He wanted this land so he could set up another white nation. That’s white nationalism. The American Revolution was white nationalism. The French Revolution was white nationalism. The Russian Revolution too — yes, it was — white nationalism. You don’t think so? Why [do] you think Khrushchev and Mao can’t get their heads together? White nationalism. All the revolutions that’s going on in Asia and Africa today are based on what? Black nationalism. A revolutionary is a black nationalist. He wants a nation. I was reading some beautiful words by Reverend Cleage, pointing out why he couldn’t get together with someone else here in the city because all of them were afraid of being identified with black nationalism. If you’re afraid of black nationalism, you’re afraid of revolution. And if you love revolution, you love black nationalism.

To understand this, you have to go back to what [the] young brother here referred to as the house Negro and the field Negro — back during slavery. There was two kinds of slaves. There was the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes – they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good ’cause they ate his food — what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they loved their master more than the master loved himself. They would give their life to save the master’s house quicker than the master would. The house Negro, if the master said, “We got a good house here,” the house Negro would say, “Yeah, we got a good house here.” Whenever the master said “we,” he said “we.” That’s how you can tell a house Negro.

If the master’s house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, “What’s the matter, boss, we sick?” We sick! He identified himself with his master more than his master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said, “Let’s run away, let’s escape, let’s separate,” the house Negro would look at you and say, “Man, you crazy. What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?” That was that house Negro. In those days he was called a “house nigger.” And that’s what we call him today, because we’ve still got some house niggers running around here. This modern house Negro loves his master. He wants to live near him. He’ll pay three times as much as the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about “I’m the only Negro out here.” “I’m the only one on my job.” “I’m the only one in this school.” You’re nothing but a house Negro. And if someone comes to you right now and says, “Let’s separate,” you say the same thing that the house Negro said on the plantation. “What you mean, separate? From America? This good white man? Where you going to get a better job than you get here?” I mean, this is what you say. “I ain’t left nothing in Africa,” that’s what you say. Why, you left your mind in Africa.

On that same plantation, there was the field Negro. The field Negro — those were the masses. There were always more Negroes in the field than there was Negroes in the house. The Negro in the field caught hell. He ate leftovers. In the house they ate high up on the hog. The Negro in the field didn’t get nothing but what was left of the insides of the hog. They call ’em “chitt’lings” nowadays. In those days they called them what they were: guts. That’s what you were — a gut-eater. And some of you all still gut-eaters.

The field Negro was beaten from morning to night. He lived in a shack, in a hut; He wore old, castoff clothes. He hated his master. I say he hated his master. He was intelligent. That house Negro loved his master. But that field Negro — remember, they were in the majority, and they hated the master. When the house caught on fire, he didn’t try and put it out; that field Negro prayed for a wind, for a breeze. When the master got sick, the field Negro prayed that he’d die. If someone come to the field Negro and said, “Let’s separate, let’s run,” he didn’t say “Where we going?” He’d say, “Any place is better than here.” You’ve got field Negroes in America today. I’m a field Negro. The masses are the field Negroes. When they see this man’s house on fire, you don’t hear these little Negroes talking about “our government is in trouble.” They say, “The government is in trouble.” Imagine a Negro: “Our government”! I even heard one say “our astronauts.” They won’t even let him near the plant — and “our astronauts”! “Our Navy” — that’s a Negro that’s out of his mind. That’s a Negro that’s out of his mind.

Just as the slavemaster of that day used Tom, the house Negro, to keep the field Negroes in check, the same old slavemaster today has Negroes who are nothing but modern Uncle Toms, 20th century Uncle Toms, to keep you and me in check, keep us under control, keep us passive and peaceful and nonviolent. That’s Tom making you nonviolent. It’s like when you go to the dentist, and the man’s going to take your tooth. You’re going to fight him when he starts pulling. So he squirts some stuff in your jaw called novocaine, to make you think they’re not doing anything to you. So you sit there and ’cause you’ve got all of that novocaine in your jaw, you suffer peacefully. Blood running all down your jaw, and you don’t know what’s happening. ‘Cause someone has taught you to suffer — peacefully.

The white man do the same thing to you in the street, when he want to put knots on your head and take advantage of you and don’t have to be afraid of your fighting back. To keep you from fighting back, he gets these old religious Uncle Toms to teach you and me, just like novocaine, suffer peacefully. Don’t stop suffering — just suffer peacefully. As Reverend Cleage pointed out, “Let your blood flow In the streets.” This is a shame. And you know he’s a Christian preacher. If it’s a shame to him, you know what it is to me.

There’s nothing in our book, the Quran — you call it “Ko-ran” — that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That’s a good religion. In fact, that’s that old-time religion. That’s the one that Ma and Pa used to talk about: an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, and a head for a head, and a life for a life: That’s a good religion. And doesn’t nobody resent that kind of religion being taught but a wolf, who intends to make you his meal.

This is the way it is with the white man in America. He’s a wolf and you’re sheep. Any time a shepherd, a pastor, teach you and me not to run from the white man and, at the same time, teach us not to fight the white man, he’s a traitor to you and me. Don’t lay down our life all by itself. No, preserve your life. it’s the best thing you got. And if you got to give it up, let it be even-steven.

The slavemaster took Tom and dressed him well, and fed him well, and even gave him a little education — a little education; gave him a long coat and a top hat and made all the other slaves look up to him. Then he used Tom to control them. The same strategy that was used in those days is used today, by the same white man. He takes a Negro, a so-called Negro, and make him prominent, build him up, publicize him, make him a celebrity. And then he becomes a spokesman for Negroes — and a Negro leader.

I would like to just mention just one other thing else quickly, and that is the method that the white man uses, how the white man uses these “big guns,” or Negro leaders, against the black revolution. They are not a part of the Negro revolution. They are used against the Negro revolution.

When Martin Luther King failed to desegregate Albany, Georgia, the civil-rights struggle in America reached its low point. King became bankrupt almost, as a leader. Plus, even financially, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was in financial trouble; plus it was in trouble, period, with the people when they failed to desegregate Albany, Georgia. Other Negro civil-rights leaders of so-called national stature became fallen idols. As they became fallen idols, began to lose their prestige and influence, local Negro leaders began to stir up the masses. In Cambridge, Maryland, Gloria Richardson; in Danville, Virginia, and other parts of the country, local leaders began to stir up our people at the grassroots level. This was never done by these Negroes, whom you recognize, of national stature. They controlled you, but they never incited you or excited you. They controlled you; they contained you; they kept you on the plantation.

As soon as King failed in Birmingham, Negroes took to the streets. King got out and went out to California to a big rally and raised about — I don’t know how many thousands of dollars. [He] come to Detroit and had a march and raised some more thousands of dollars. And recall, right after that [Roy] Wilkins attacked King, accused King and the CORE [Congress Of Racial Equality] of starting trouble everywhere and then making the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] get them out of jail and spend a lot of money; and then they accused King and CORE of raising all the money and not paying it back. This happened; I’ve got it in documented evidence in the newspaper. Roy started attacking King, and King started attacking Roy, and Farmer started attacking both of them. And as these Negroes of national stature began to attack each other, they began to lose their control of the Negro masses.

And Negroes was out there in the streets. They was talking about [how] we was going to march on Washington. By the way, right at that time Birmingham had exploded, and the Negroes in Birmingham — remember, they also exploded. They began to stab the crackers in the back and bust them up ‘side their head — yes, they did. That’s when Kennedy sent in the troops, down in Birmingham. So, and right after that, Kennedy got on the television and said “this is a moral issue.” That’s when he said he was going to put out a civil-rights bill. And when he mentioned civil-rights bill and the Southern crackers started talking about [how] they were going to boycott or filibuster it, then the Negroes started talking — about what? We’re going to march on Washington, march on the Senate, march on the White House, march on the Congress, and tie it up, bring it to a halt; don’t let the government proceed. They even said they was going out to the airport and lay down on the runway and don’t let no airplanes land. I’m telling you what they said. That was revolution. That was revolution. That was the black revolution.

It was the grass roots out there in the street. [It] scared the white man to death, scared the white power structure in Washington, D. C. to death; I was there. When they found out that this black steamroller was going to come down on the capital, they called in Wilkins; they called in Randolph; they called in these national Negro leaders that you respect and told them, “Call it off.” Kennedy said, “Look, you all letting this thing go too far.” And Old Tom said, “Boss, I can’t stop it, because I didn’t start it.” I’m telling you what they said. They said, “I’m not even in it, much less at the head of it.” They said, “These Negroes are doing things on their own. They’re running ahead of us.” And that old shrewd fox, he said, “Well If you all aren’t in it, I’ll put you in it. I’ll put you at the head of it. I’ll endorse it. I’ll welcome it. I’ll help it. I’ll join it.”

A matter of hours went by. They had a meeting at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. The Carlyle Hotel is owned by the Kennedy family; that’s the hotel Kennedy spent the night at, two nights ago; [it] belongs to his family. A philanthropic society headed by a white man named Stephen Currier called all the top civil-rights leaders together at the Carlyle Hotel. And he told them that, “By you all fighting each other, you are destroying the civil-rights movement. And since you’re fighting over money from white liberals, let us set up what is known as the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership. Let’s form this council, and all the civil-rights organizations will belong to it, and we’ll use it for fund-raising purposes.” Let me show you how tricky the white man is. And as soon as they got it formed, they elected Whitney Young as the chairman, and who [do] you think became the co-chairman? Stephen Currier, the white man, a millionaire. Powell was talking about it down at the Cobo [Hall] today. This is what he was talking about. Powell knows it happened. Randolph knows it happened. Wilkins knows it happened. King knows it happened. Everyone of that so-called Big Six — they know what happened.

Once they formed it, with the white man over it, he promised them and gave them $800,000 to split up between the Big Six; and told them that after the march was over they’d give them $700,000 more. A million and a half dollars — split up between leaders that you’ve been following, going to jail for, crying crocodile tears for. And they’re nothing but Frank James and Jesse James and the what-do-you-call-’em brothers.

[As] soon as they got the setup organized, the white man made available to them top public relations experts; opened the news media across the country at their disposal; and then they begin to project these Big Six as the leaders of the march.

Originally, they weren’t even in the march. You was [sic ] talking this march talk on Hastings Street — Is Hastings Street still here? — on Hasting Street. You was talking the march talk on Lenox Avenue, and out on — What you call it? — Fillmore Street, and Central Avenue, and 32nd Street and 63rd Street. That’s where the march talk was being talked. But the white man put the Big Six [at the] head of it; made them the march. They became the march. They took it over. And the first move they made after they took it over, they invited Walter Reuther, a white man; they invited a priest, a rabbi, and an old white preacher. Yes, an old white preacher. The same white element that put Kennedy in power — labor, the Catholics, the Jews, and liberal Protestants; [the] same clique that put Kennedy in power, joined the march on Washington.

It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What you do? You integrate it with cream; you make it weak. If you pour too much cream in, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it’ll put you to sleep. This is what they did with the march on Washington. They joined it. They didn’t integrate it; they infiltrated it. They joined it, became a part of it, took it over. And as they took it over, it lost its militancy. They ceased to be angry. They ceased to be hot. They ceased to be uncompromising. Why, it even ceased to be a march. It became a picnic, a circus. Nothing but a circus, with clowns and all. You had one right here in Detroit — I saw it on television — with clowns leading it, white clowns and black clowns. I know you don’t like what I’m saying, but I’m going to tell you anyway. ‘Cause I can prove what I’m saying. If you think I’m telling you wrong, you bring me Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph and James Farmer and those other three, and see if they’ll deny it over a microphone.

No, it was a sellout. It was a takeover. When James Baldwin came in from Paris, they wouldn’t let him talk, ’cause they couldn’t make him go by the script. Burt Lancaster read the speech that Baldwin was supposed to make; they wouldn’t let Baldwin get up there, ’cause they know Baldwin’s liable to say anything. They controlled it so tight — they told those Negroes what time to hit town, how to come, where to stop, what signs to carry, what song to sing, what speech they could make, and what speech they couldn’t make; and then told them to get out town by sundown. And everyone of those Toms was out of town by sundown. Now I know you don’t like my saying this. But I can back it up. It was a circus, a performance that beat anything Hollywood could ever do, the performance of the year. Reuther and those other three devils should get a Academy Award for the best actors ’cause they acted like they really loved Negroes and fooled a whole lot of Negroes. And the six Negro leaders should get an award too, for the best supporting cast.

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‘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.

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 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.

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."

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 .

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Barack Obama address on civil rights in Selma, Alabama – full text

President speaks at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, scene of infamous ‘Bloody Sunday’ of civil rights movement 50 years ago

It is a rare honor in this life to follow one of your heroes. And John Lewis is one of my heroes.

Now, I have to imagine that when a younger John Lewis woke up that morning 50 years ago and made his way to Brown Chapel, heroics were not on his mind. A day like this was not on his mind. Young folks with bedrolls and backpacks were milling about. Veterans of the movement trained newcomers in the tactics of non-violence; the right way to protect yourself when attacked. A doctor described what teargas does to the body, while marchers scribbled down instructions for contacting their loved ones. The air was thick with doubt, anticipation, and fear. They comforted themselves with the final verse of the final hymn they sang:

No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you;

Lean, weary one, upon His breast, God will take care of you.

Then, his knapsack stocked with an apple, a toothbrush, a book on government – all you need for a night behind bars – John Lewis led them out of the church on a mission to change America.

President Bush and Mrs Bush, Governor Bentley, members of Congress, Mayor Evans, Reverend Strong, friends and fellow Americans:

There are places and moments in America where this nation’s destiny has been decided. Many are sites of war – Concord and Lexington, Appomattox and Gettysburg. Others are sites that symbolize the daring of America’s character – Independence Hall and Seneca Falls, Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral.

Selma is such a place.

In one afternoon 50 years ago, so much of our turbulent history – the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war; the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow; the death of four little girls in Birmingham, and the dream of a Baptist preacher – met on this bridge.

It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills; a contest to determine the meaning of America.

And because of men and women like John Lewis, Joseph Lowery, Hosea Williams, Amelia Boynton, Diane Nash, Ralph Abernathy, CT Vivian, Andrew Young, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr King, and so many more, the idea of a just America, a fair America, an inclusive America, a generous America – that idea ultimately triumphed.

As is true across the landscape of American history, we cannot examine this moment in isolation. The march on Selma was part of a broader campaign that spanned generations; the leaders that day part of a long line of heroes.

We gather here to celebrate them. We gather here to honor the courage of ordinary Americans willing to endure billy clubs and the chastening rod; teargas and the trampling hoof; men and women who despite the gush of blood and splintered bone would stay true to their North Star and keep marching toward justice.

They did as Scripture instructed: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” And in the days to come, they went back again and again. When the trumpet call sounded for more to join, the people came – black and white, young and old, Christian and Jew, waving the American flag and singing the same anthems full of faith and hope. A white newsman, Bill Plante, who covered the marches then and who is with us here today, quipped that the growing number of white people lowered the quality of the singing. To those who marched, though, those old gospel songs must have never sounded so sweet.

In time, their chorus would reach President Johnson. And he would send them protection, echoing their call for the nation and the world to hear:

“We shall overcome.”

What enormous faith these men and women had. Faith in God – but also faith in America.

The Americans who crossed this bridge were not physically imposing. But they gave courage to millions. They held no elected office. But they led a nation. They marched as Americans who had endured hundreds of years of brutal violence, and countless daily indignities – but they didn’t seek special treatment, just the equal treatment promised to them almost a century before.

What they did here will reverberate through the ages. Not because the change they won was preordained; not because their victory was complete; but because they proved that non-violent change is possible; that love and hope can conquer hate.

As we commemorate their achievement, we are well-served to remember that at the time of the marches, many in power condemned rather than praised them. Back then, they were called communists, half-breeds, outside agitators, sexual and moral degenerates, and worse – everything but the name their parents gave them. Their faith was questioned. Their lives were threatened. Their patriotism was challenged.

And yet, what could be more American than what happened in this place?

What could more profoundly vindicate the idea of America than plain and humble people – the unsung, the downtrodden, the dreamers not of high station, not born to wealth or privilege, not of one religious tradition but many – coming together to shape their country’s course?

What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this – what greater form of patriotism is there – than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?

That’s why Selma is not some outlier in the American experience. That’s why it’s not a museum or static monument to behold from a distance. It is instead the manifestation of a creed written into our founding documents:

“We the People … in order to form a more perfect union.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

These are not just words. They are a living thing, a call to action, a roadmap for citizenship and an insistence in the capacity of free men and women to shape our own destiny. For founders like Franklin and Jefferson, for leaders like Lincoln and FDR, the success of our experiment in self-government rested on engaging all our citizens in this work. That’s what we celebrate here in Selma. That’s what this movement was all about, one leg in our long journey toward freedom.

The American instinct that led these young men and women to pick up the torch and cross this bridge is the same instinct that moved patriots to choose revolution over tyranny. It’s the same instinct that drew immigrants from across oceans and the Rio Grande; the same instinct that led women to reach for the ballot and workers to organize against an unjust status quo; the same instinct that led us to plant a flag at Iwo Jima and on the surface of the moon.

It’s the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress; who believed that loving this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths. It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what’s right and shake up the status quo.

That’s what makes us unique, and cements our reputation as a beacon of opportunity. Young people behind the Iron Curtain would see Selma and eventually tear down a wall. Young people in Soweto would hear Bobby Kennedy talk about ripples of hope and eventually banish the scourge of apartheid. Young people in Burma went to prison rather than submit to military rule. From the streets of Tunis to the Maidan in Ukraine, this generation of young people can draw strength from this place, where the powerless could change the world’s greatest superpower, and push their leaders to expand the boundaries of freedom.

They saw that idea made real in Selma, Alabama . They saw it made real in America.

Because of campaigns like this, a Voting Rights Act was passed. Political, economic, and social barriers came down, and the change these men and women wrought is visible here today in the presence of African Americans who run boardrooms, who sit on the bench, who serve in elected office from small towns to big cities; from the Congressional Black Caucus to the Oval Office.

Because of what they did, the doors of opportunity swung open not just for African Americans, but for every American. Women marched through those doors. Latinos marched through those doors. Asian Americans, gay Americans, and Americans with disabilities came through those doors. Their endeavors gave the entire south the chance to rise again, not by reasserting the past, but by transcending the past.

What a glorious thing, Dr King might say.

What a solemn debt we owe.

Which leads us to ask, just how might we repay that debt?

First and foremost, we have to recognize that one day’s commemoration, no matter how special, is not enough. If Selma taught us anything, it’s that our work is never done – the American experiment in self-government gives work and purpose to each generation.

Selma teaches us, too, that action requires that we shed our cynicism. For when it comes to the pursuit of justice, we can afford neither complacency nor despair.

Just this week, I was asked whether I thought the Department of Justice’s Ferguson report shows that, with respect to race, little has changed in this country. I understand the question, for the report’s narrative was woefully familiar. It evoked the kind of abuse and disregard for citizens that spawned the Civil Rights Movement. But I rejected the notion that nothing’s changed. What happened in Ferguson may not be unique, but it’s no longer endemic, or sanctioned by law and custom; and before the Civil Rights Movement, it most surely was.

We do a disservice to the cause of justice by intimating that bias and discrimination are immutable, or that racial division is inherent to America. If you think nothing’s changed in the past 50 years, ask somebody who lived through the Selma or Chicago or LA of the 50s. Ask the female CEO who once might have been assigned to the secretarial pool if nothing’s changed. Ask your gay friend if it’s easier to be out and proud in America now than it was 30 years ago. To deny this progress – our progress – would be to rob us of our own agency; our responsibility to do what we can to make America better.

Of course, a more common mistake is to suggest that racism is banished, that the work that drew men and women to Selma is complete, and that whatever racial tensions remain are a consequence of those seeking to play the “race card” for their own purposes. We don’t need the Ferguson report to know that’s not true. We just need to open our eyes, and ears, and hearts, to know that this nation’s racial history still casts its long shadow upon us. We know the march is not yet over, the race is not yet won, and that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character – requires admitting as much.

“We are capable of bearing a great burden,” James Baldwin wrote, “once we discover that the burden is reality and arrive where reality is.”

This is work for all Americans, and not just some. Not just whites. Not just blacks. If we want to honor the courage of those who marched that day, then all of us are called to possess their moral imagination. All of us will need to feel, as they did, the fierce urgency of now. All of us need to recognize, as they did, that change depends on our actions, our attitudes, the things we teach our children. And if we make such effort, no matter how hard it may seem, laws can be passed, and consciences can be stirred, and consensus can be built.

With such effort, we can make sure our criminal justice system serves all and not just some. Together, we can raise the level of mutual trust that policing is built on – the idea that police officers are members of the communities they risk their lives to protect, and citizens in Ferguson and New York and Cleveland just want the same thing young people here marched for – the protection of the law. Together, we can address unfair sentencing, and overcrowded prisons, and the stunted circumstances that rob too many boys of the chance to become men, and rob the nation of too many men who could be good dads, and workers, and neighbors.

With effort, we can roll back poverty and the roadblocks to opportunity. Americans don’t accept a free ride for anyone, nor do we believe in equality of outcomes. But we do expect equal opportunity, and if we really mean it, if we’re willing to sacrifice for it, then we can make sure every child gets an education suitable to this new century, one that expands imaginations and lifts their sights and gives them skills. We can make sure every person willing to work has the dignity of a job, and a fair wage, and a real voice, and sturdier rungs on that ladder into the middle class.

And with effort, we can protect the foundation stone of our democracy for which so many marched across this bridge – and that is the right to vote. Right now, in 2015, 50 years after Selma, there are laws across this country designed to make it harder for people to vote. As we speak, more of such laws are being proposed. Meanwhile, the Voting Rights Act, the culmination of so much blood and sweat and tears, the product of so much sacrifice in the face of wanton violence, stands weakened, its future subject to partisan rancor.

How can that be? The Voting Rights Act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy, the result of Republican and Democratic effort. President Reagan signed its renewal when he was in office. President Bush signed its renewal when he was in office. One hundred members of Congress have come here today to honor people who were willing to die for the right it protects. If we want to honor this day, let these 100 go back to Washington, and gather 400 more, and together, pledge to make it their mission to restore the law this year.

Of course, our democracy is not the task of Congress alone, or the courts alone, or the president alone. If every new voter suppression law was struck down today, we’d still have one of the lowest voting rates among free peoples. Fifty years ago, registering to vote here in Selma and much of the south meant guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar or bubbles on a bar of soap. It meant risking your dignity, and sometimes, your life. What is our excuse today for not voting? How do we so casually discard the right for which so many fought? How do we so fully give away our power, our voice, in shaping America’s future?

Fellow marchers, so much has changed in 50 years. We’ve endured war, and fashioned peace. We’ve seen technological wonders that touch every aspect of our lives, and take for granted convenience our parents might scarcely imagine. But what has not changed is the imperative of citizenship, that willingness of a 26-year-old deacon, or a Unitarian minister, or a young mother of five, to decide they loved this country so much that they’d risk everything to realize its promise.

That’s what it means to love America. That’s what it means to believe in America. That’s what it means when we say America is exceptional.

For we were born of change. We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. We secure our rights and responsibilities through a system of self-government, of and by and for the people. That’s why we argue and fight with so much passion and conviction, because we know our efforts matter. We know America is what we make of it.

We are Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea – pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, entrepreneurs and hucksters. That’s our spirit.

We are Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, women who could do as much as any man and then some; and we’re Susan B Anthony, who shook the system until the law reflected that truth. That’s our character.

We’re the immigrants who stowed away on ships to reach these shores, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free – Holocaust survivors, Soviet defectors, the Lost Boys of Sudan. We are the hopeful strivers who cross the Rio Grande because they want their kids to know a better life. That’s how we came to be.

We’re the slaves who built the White House and the economy of the south. We’re the ranch hands and cowboys who opened the west, and countless laborers who laid rail, and raised skyscrapers, and organized for workers’ rights.

We’re the fresh-faced GIs who fought to liberate a continent, and we’re the Tuskeegee airmen, Navajo code-talkers, and Japanese Americans who fought for this country even as their own liberty had been denied. We’re the firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9/11, and the volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We are the gay Americans whose blood ran on the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge.

We are storytellers, writers, poets, and artists who abhor unfairness, and despise hypocrisy, and give voice to the voiceless, and tell truths that need to be told.

We are the inventors of gospel and jazz and the blues, bluegrass and country, hip-hop and rock’n’roll, our very own sounds with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.

We are Jackie Robinson, enduring scorn and spiked cleats and pitches coming straight to his head, and stealing home in the World Series anyway.

We are the people Langston Hughes wrote of, who “build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how”.

We are the people Emerson wrote of, “who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long”; who are “never tired, so long as we can see far enough”.

That’s what America is. Not stock photos or airbrushed history or feeble attempts to define some of us as more American than others. We respect the past, but we don’t pine for it. We don’t fear the future; we grab for it. America is not some fragile thing; we are large, in the words of Whitman, containing multitudes. We are boisterous and diverse and full of energy, perpetually young in spirit. That’s why someone like John Lewis at the ripe age of 25 could lead a mighty march.

And that’s what the young people here today and listening all across the country must take away from this day. You are America. Unconstrained by habits and convention. Unencumbered by what is, and ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, and new ground to cover, and bridges to be crossed. And it is you, the young and fearless at heart, the most diverse and educated generation in our history, who the nation is waiting to follow.

Because Selma shows us that America is not the project of any one person.

Because the single most powerful word in our democracy is the word “We”. We The People. We Shall Overcome. Yes We Can. It is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given, to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.

Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished. But we are getting closer. Two hundred and thirty-nine years after this nation’s founding, our union is not yet perfect. But we are getting closer. Our job’s easier because somebody already got us through that first mile. Somebody already got us over that bridge. When it feels the road’s too hard, when the torch we’ve been passed feels too heavy, we will remember these early travelers, and draw strength from their example, and hold firmly the words of the prophet Isaiah:

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.”

We honor those who walked so we could run. We must run so our children soar. And we will not grow weary. For we believe in the power of an awesome God, and we believe in this country’s sacred promise.

May He bless those warriors of justice no longer with us, and bless the United States of America.

• Selma 50th anniversary
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For the convenience of teachers, students, and interested citizens, here are links to a selection of many important speeches closely associated with the African American Freedom Struggle, particularly those speeches that were made between 1955 and 1972. (The speeches are alphabetized by speaker’s last name. When there is more than one entry for a speaker, the items are arranged chronologically.)

Baker, Ella:

Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Visual Materials from the NAACP Records, LC-DIG-ppmsca-38688

 “Bigger Than a Hamburger” : delivered at the organizational m eeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Raleigh, North Carolina in April, 1960. (Baker was one described by Fannie Lou Hamer as “the most important black leader in the United States.”)

“Address at Hattiesburg” : delivered at the Hattiesburg Freedom Day Rally on January 21, 1964.

Brown, H. Rap:

“The Third World and the Ghetto” : delivered in Cambridge, Maryland on July 24, 1967.

Carmichael, Stokely:

Source: Encyclopædia Britannica, CSU Archive/age fotostock

“Black Power” : delivered on October 29, 1966. (For more on this speech, consult the information on the Voices of Democracy web site.)

Chisholm, Shirley:

“For the Equal Rights Amendment” : delivered on August 10, 1970.

Evers, Medgar:

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

May 20, 1963 speech on WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi.

Gregory, Dick:

Source: Encyclopædia Britannica, Archive Photos

Speech at St. John’s Baptist Church : delivered on May 20, 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Hamer, Fannie Lou:

Source: Episcopal Community Services, Black History Month Spotlight

Speech Before the Credentials Committee of the Democratic National Convention : delivered in Atlantic City on August 22, 1964.

“We’re on Our Way” : delivered to citizens in Indianola, Mississippi, in September 1964.

Johnson, Lyndon B.:

Source: Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-13036

“We Shall Overcome” : address to a Joint Session of Congress on voting right legislation in Washington, D.C. on March 15, 1965. (For more on this speech, consult the information on the Voices of Democracy web site.)

“To Fulfill These Rights” : delivered at Howard University’s commencement in Washington, D.C. on June 4, 1965.

Address to the Nation Upon Proclaiming a Day of Mourning (on April 5, 1968).

Kennedy, John F.:

Source: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-38698

Reference the Voices of Democracy entry of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Speech (January 20, 1961) here .

“Civil Rights Address” : Kennedy’s televised speech to the nation, delivered on June 11, 1963.

King, Martin Luther:

Source: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01269

“Transformed Nonconformist” : a sermon first preached in Montgomery, Alabama in November, 1954 and repeated over the next several years.

Address to the first Montgomery Improvement Association Mass Meeting  (listen to audio ) at Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama on December 5, 1955.

“The Birth of a New Nation” : a report on Dr. King’s trip to Ghana, delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama on April 7, 1957.

“A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations” presented at the St. Louis Freedom Rally on April 10, 1957.

“Give Us the Ballot” : a public address given at the Prayer Pilgrimage in Washington, D.C. on May 17, 1957.

“Loving Your Enemies” : a sermon presented at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama on November 17, 1957.

“Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience” : an address delivered at the annual meeting of the biracial Fellowship of the Concerned in Atlanta, Georgia on November 16, 1961.

Speech at the Great March on Detroit : Dr. King’s speech to a rally at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan on June 23, 1963 (it previews part of Dr. King’s speech at the March on Washington two months later).

“I Have a Dream” : Dr. King’s address at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

Eulogy for the Young Victims of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing :  offered at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 18, 1963, three days after the bombing. (A student’s analysis of King’s eulogy can be found here .)

Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech : presented at the University of Oslo in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 1964.

King at Penn State : Dr. King’s speech at Penn State University on January 21, 1965. (Follow the link to read a student’s analysis of what he said.)

Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 25, 1965. (For more on this speech, consult the information on the Voices of Democracy web site.)

“Beyond Vietnam” : Dr. King offers his public renunciation of the war in Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967.

“Where Do We Go From Here?” : Dr. King’s keynote address at the 11th Annual SCLC Convention in Atlanta, Georgia on August 16, 1967.

“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” : King’s final speech before a rally at Bishop Charles Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 3, 1968.

Lewis, John:

Source: Library of Congress

“We Are in a Serious Revolution” : presented at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. (For more on this speech, consult the information on the Voices of Democracy web site.)

Marshall, Thurgood:

“No Peace at Any Cost” : delivered at the Seventh Annual Institute on Race Relations at Fisk University during the summer of 1961. (Follow the link to read a student’s analysis of the address.)

Milk, Harvey:

“ You’ve Got to Have Hope “: delivered June 24, 1977.

Obama, Barack:

Source: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppbd-00358

“A More Perfect Union” : presented at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008.

Wallace, George:

Inaugural Address : delivered in Montgomery, Alabama on January 14, 1963.

On Civil Rights during the Selma Campaign : an address to the Alabama state legislature on March 18, 1965.

Washington, Booker T.:

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Harris & Ewing, LC-DIG-hec-16116

“Atlanta Compromise” : delivered at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia on September 18, 1895. For more information about this speech consult the Voices of Democracy entry here . The Voices of Democracy also have suggested resources referencing this speech here .

Wells, Ida B.:

“Lynch Law” : delivered in Boston on February 13, 1983.

Wilkins, Roy:

“The Clock Will Not Be Turned Back” : delivered at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on November 1, 1957.  Follow the link to read a student’s analysis  of the speech.

X, Malcolm:

Source: Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-119478

“The Race Problem in America” – Address at Michigan State University presented in East Lansing, Michigan on January 23, 1963. (For a student’s work on this speech, click here .)

Remarks at the Harlem Unity Rally (August 10, 1963).

“Message to the Grassroots” : presented at Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan during a meeting of the Grass Roots Leadership Conference on November 10, 1963.

“God’s Judgment of White America” : presented at Manhattan Center in New York City on December 1, 1963.

“The Ballot or the Bullet” : presented in Detroit, Michigan on April 12, 1964.

“Prospects for Freedom in 1965” : presented at the Militant Labor Forum in New York on January 7, 1965.

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Are colleges facing a free speech crisis.

From the picket lines of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, to social media posts surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict today, expressing free speech — and how to better define it — continues to test higher education decision-makers.

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The increase in student-led protests at U.S.-based colleges and universities surrounding the October 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict has brought free speech on campus, back into popular discourse. After the actions and suspensions of some student groups led to televised congressional hearings and then the resignation of two elite university presidents, defining and outlining free speech on campus appeared to be at a stalemate.

Groups such as, The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE are attempting to keep the dialogue going. FIRE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works on a national scale to spread awareness regarding free speech rights on college campuses.

“We're seeing large amounts of students professing self-censorship and the culture of free speech being deteriorated on college campuses,” Zach Greenberg said, the senior program officer within campus advocacy at FIRE . “And so while the law remains solid, we do worry about how it's being applied and how universities actually are defending students’ free speech rights.”

By expressing and exercising their free speech rights, student-led groups have consistently influenced federal legislation especially during the 1960s and 1970s.

Most notably, the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , and Nixon signing the 26th Amendment in 1971 , which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18-years-old at the federal level.

In the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement was amplified by courageous students such as Claudette Colvin, Diane Nash, the Little Rock Nine, and the Greensboro Four , and several student-led and founded groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) and the Black Panther Party .

However, protests reached a fever pitch on May 4, 1970, with the Kent State Massacre, in which four students were shot and killed by Ohio State National Guardsmen. Less than two weeks later, on May 15, 1970 at Jackson State in Mississippi, law enforcement fired into a crowd, killing a pre-law student and a local high school student, who was on campus at the time.

Following these national tragedies, the Nixon administration assembled a task force to study campus unrest on a national scale. What resulted was a 400-plus page magnum opus titled, "The Report of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest," which analyzed the Kent State and Jackson State tragedies, the history of campus protests stretching back to the American Revolution, and suggestions for students, faculty, and law enforcement moving forward.

Although, the Nixon administration hesitated to implement the commission’s suggestions from the lengthy tome, today’s students aren’t limited by formal case studies to share their thoughts and reach a wider audience.

Whether students speak formally through congressional hearings (that are subsequently shared on YouTube to view beyond traditional airtimes) or informally through social media posts, clarifying free speech for students in the digital age may continue to be a challenging, but a necessary, discussion. “Students aren't really having the kind of discussions that they were having, perhaps 10 or 15 years ago,” Greenberg said. “The first step to defending your rights is knowing your rights.”

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Are colleges facing a free speech crisis.

From the picket lines of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, to social media posts surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict today, expressing free speech — and how to better define it — continues to test higher education decision-makers.

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GET NATIONAL BREAKING NEWS ALERTS

The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox.

The increase in student-led protests at U.S.-based colleges and universities surrounding the October 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict has brought free speech on campus, back into popular discourse. After the actions and suspensions of some student groups led to televised congressional hearings and then the resignation of two elite university presidents, defining and outlining free speech on campus appeared to be at a stalemate.

Groups such as, The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE are attempting to keep the dialogue going. FIRE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works on a national scale to spread awareness regarding free speech rights on college campuses.

“We're seeing large amounts of students professing self-censorship and the culture of free speech being deteriorated on college campuses,” Zach Greenberg said, the senior program officer within campus advocacy at FIRE . “And so while the law remains solid, we do worry about how it's being applied and how universities actually are defending students’ free speech rights.”

By expressing and exercising their free speech rights, student-led groups have consistently influenced federal legislation especially during the 1960s and 1970s.

Most notably, the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , and Nixon signing the 26th Amendment in 1971 , which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18-years-old at the federal level.

In the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement was amplified by courageous students such as Claudette Colvin, Diane Nash, the Little Rock Nine, and the Greensboro Four , and several student-led and founded groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) and the Black Panther Party .

However, protests reached a fever pitch on May 4, 1970, with the Kent State Massacre, in which four students were shot and killed by Ohio State National Guardsmen. Less than two weeks later, on May 15, 1970 at Jackson State in Mississippi, law enforcement fired into a crowd, killing a pre-law student and a local high school student, who was on campus at the time.

Following these national tragedies, the Nixon administration assembled a task force to study campus unrest on a national scale. What resulted was a 400-plus page magnum opus titled, "The Report of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest," which analyzed the Kent State and Jackson State tragedies, the history of campus protests stretching back to the American Revolution, and suggestions for students, faculty, and law enforcement moving forward.

Although, the Nixon administration hesitated to implement the commission’s suggestions from the lengthy tome, today’s students aren’t limited by formal case studies to share their thoughts and reach a wider audience.

Whether students speak formally through congressional hearings (that are subsequently shared on YouTube to view beyond traditional airtimes) or informally through social media posts, clarifying free speech for students in the digital age may continue to be a challenging, but a necessary, discussion. “Students aren't really having the kind of discussions that they were having, perhaps 10 or 15 years ago,” Greenberg said. “The first step to defending your rights is knowing your rights.”

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As Civil Rights Era Fades From Memory, Generation Gap Divides Black Voters

Many older Black voters see moral and political reasons to vote. Younger Black voters feel far less motivated to cast a ballot for Democrats or even at all.

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By Maya King

Reporting from Atlanta

For years, Loretta Green has voted at her Southwest Atlanta precinct wearing the same custom T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of her first voter registration card, dated to 1960. The front of it reads: “This is why I vote.”

Since gaining the legal right, Ms. Green, 88, has participated in every possible election. This November will be no different, she said, when she casts a ballot for President Biden and Democrats down the ticket.

But conversations with her younger relatives, who have told her they’re unsure of voting or considering staying home, illustrate some of the challenges Mr. Biden’s campaign faces in reassembling his winning 2020 coalition, particularly in key battleground states like Georgia. While Ms. Green and many older Black voters are set on voting and already have plans in place to do so, younger Black voters, polling and focus group data show, feel far less motivated to cast a ballot for Democrats or even at all.

“To me, voting is almost sacred. Look at what people went through. The struggles. The people that allowed themselves to be beaten,” Ms. Green said of the civil rights movement that ignited her determination to vote in every election. “I think there are some young Blacks who probably feel like it didn’t even happen.”

Black voters have long been Democrats’ most loyal constituency, and high turnout from this bloc is crucial to Mr. Biden’s re-election. Any drop-off in support could imperil his chances of winning in November. And surveys have shown a striking generational divide within this bloc, driven by what many young people see as broken campaign promises and what party leaders have suggested is a difficulty in communicating Mr. Biden’s accomplishments to voters.

There is still time for Democrats to close this gap. But growing discontent from young voters, especially concerning the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza — illustrated in an April New York Times/Siena College poll that shows just 4 percent of voters under 45 strongly approve of Mr. Biden’s handling of foreign policy — underlines the scale of the response that may be required of the president’s re-election campaign to bring young voters back into the fold.

The stark difference between how older and younger Black voters respond to Mr. Biden and Democrats further highlights how different the messages to these voters will have to be.

“It is a generational divide. They don’t know the people who fought and died for their rights,” said Terrance Woodbury, a Democratic pollster, whose polling has found a nearly 30-point gap in support for Democrats among Black voters 18 to 49 years old relative to Black voters over 50. The latter group, he said, “does know those people. They saw that fight. Some of them were in that fight.”

Young Black voters point to higher costs of living, crises abroad and the old ages of both major candidates — Mr. Biden, 81, is the oldest U.S. president, and former President Donald J. Trump is 77 — as reasons for their discontent. They also say that they feel their lives have not improved under Mr. Biden’s presidency and that they have seen little of his campaign promises to lower housing costs, relieve student loan debt and promote racial equity.

These gripes are not unique to young Black voters. In polls, focus groups and interviews, record numbers of Black Americans across ages and genders have expressed disenchantment with Democratic leaders. And the generation gap in support for Democrats is not unique to one race. While most young voters support Democrats and turned out en masse during the 2020 presidential and 2022 midterm elections, many have also said they are deeply dissatisfied with the party and see less reason to turn back out for them.

“I can understand,” said India Juarez, 46, a Southwest Atlanta resident and Democratic voter. “You’ve got two people who really should be retired, enjoying their golden lives.”

Still, for older Black voters, many of whom see Mr. Trump as a threat to their fundamental rights, stopping him and other Republicans from reclaiming power in November outshines their frustrations with Democrats. By an overwhelming majority, Black voters continue to support Democratic candidates and some encourage the younger people in their lives to do the same.

Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, an influential Biden ally who led civil rights protests in college, said he had spent much of his time outside Washington on college campuses to encourage students to vote. But, he said, “it needs to be an informed vote.”

“I don’t want people going out there talking about, ‘There’s no difference between Trump and Biden.’ I’m going to show them what the differences are. I want them to see why you need to go out and vote,” he said. He lauded the older Black voters who encourage their younger relatives to register and cast a ballot.

Tari Turner, 52, a Black Democratic voter from Detroit, is one of them. She said she often encourages her son, Brice Ballard, 34, to vote in elections even when he is reluctant to.

“I make him vote. He votes,” she said. “I don’t play about him voting. I’ll go pick him up to vote.”

This November, she said she planned to vote and support Mr. Biden’s re-election — a fact she acknowledged tepidly. Mr. Ballard, however, said he would not vote this year, despite his mother’s urging.

“I just don’t feel a connection with either candidate,” he said, adding that he voted in the last presidential election. If he did vote in November, he said he would more likely support Mr. Trump because he felt he was economically better off under his presidency.

Mr. Ballard’s feelings align with another concern for the Biden campaign: a rightward shift among nonwhite voters that is particularly pronounced among young men of color. Mr. Trump and his campaign have recognized this and made some efforts to court Black voters in recent months. Still, many are rooted in stereotype and often offensive.

Mr. Biden’s campaign has aimed to encourage young Black voters to turn out through increased direct contact with them. Senior campaign officials for Mr. Biden underlined his campaign’s presence on college campuses, online and at music festivals and sporting events. They added that the campaign was hiring a director of campus engagement who will focus on mobilizing students at historically Black colleges and universities.

On the airwaves, the campaign is running several ads targeted to Black voters that emphasize the Biden administration’s work to lower health care costs and its large investments in historically Black colleges and universities. Democrats have also enlisted celebrities and local Black elected officials to serve as surrogates.

That hasn’t kept concerns from some Black community leaders at bay. The New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan voter mobilization group, has held more focus groups with voters and adjusted its talking points during canvassing operations to address disaffected younger voters and the policy issues that matter to them. That way, said Kendra Cotton, the group’s chief executive, organizers can explain to young voters how government can work — rather than admonish them for declining to participate in the political process.

“This narrative that people have that ‘oh, you should vote because so many people died for you to have that right,’ that is not resonating with this new generation at all,” Ms. Cotton said. “And I think us continuing to propagate that narrative, no matter how true and rooted in fact that may be, is off-putting.”

Davan’te Jennings, the Georgia Young Democrats’ Black caucus chair, said he had held a range of conversations with younger Black voters who are not enthusiastic about voting. Some, he said, have expressed interest in supporting Republicans this November.

“They’re like, ‘We’ve been on this Democratic side for so long, they tell us all these things and nothing happens,’” he said. “Let’s see what’s over here on the Republican side.’”

Ms. Green, who said she, too, had concerns about young voters’ involvement, said she planned to volunteer with Mr. Biden’s campaign operation in Georgia to encourage young Black voters to turn out and to talk to them about the importance of their vote — something she sees as both morally and politically significant.

“That’s why we have to tell them our story. They don’t understand it,” she said. “They haven’t seen it. And if we do not continue to talk to them, tell them the history, then they won’t know.”

An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misspelled the surname of Tari Turner’s son. He is Brice, not Bryce.

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Maya King is a politics reporter covering the Southeast, based in Atlanta. She covers campaigns, elections and movements in the American South, as well as national trends relating to Black voters and young people. More about Maya King

Our Coverage of the 2024 Election

Presidential Race

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