Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
For all of us who never lost faith even in our darkest hour of despair and disappointment, the hope still lives and the dream will never die. A belated happy birthday Dr. King on your official day. This year is a very special birthday celebration, for tomorrow the first African-American president will be sworn in as President of the United States. I know that you and Coretta will be smiling down upon Barack Obama and his family.
Let us renew our commitment to form a more perfect Union, for ourselves and our posterity with "the fierce urgency of now."
The March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech. American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr. – I Have a Dream
And 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" — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and 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!
Smoke and mirrors counselor. You talk all around the facts but don’t address them except thru innuendo and “I think”. I must admit it was careless of me to make such a statement without the proper documentation. I will be around by source books shortly and will provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty….
See this AP report by Brendan Farrington http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1644&Itemid=42
TALLAHASSEE (AP) — A black Republican group has put up billboards in Florida and South Carolina saying the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican, a claim that black leaders say is ridiculous.
The National Black Republican Association has paid for billboards showing an image of the civil rights leader and the words “Martin Luther King Jr. was a REPUBLICAN.”
The Rev. Joseph Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King, chuckled at the idea.
“These guys never give up, do they?” Lowery said. “Lord, have mercy.”
* * *
The King Center in Atlanta says there is no proof that King was ever a Republican.
* * *
Lowery, who knew King well, said there is no reason why anyone would think King was a Republican. He said
King most certainly voted for President Kennedy, and the only time he openly talked about politics was when he criticized Republican Barry Goldwater during the 1964 presidential campaign.
“That was not the Martin I know and I don’t think they can substantiate that by any shape, form or fashion. It’s purely propaganda and poppycock,” Lowery said. “Even if he was, he would have nothing to do with what the Republican Party stands for today. Do they think Martin would support George W. Bush and the war in Iraq?”
In The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., which was published after his death from his written material and records, King called the Republican national convention that nominated Goldwater a “frenzied wedding … of the KKK and the radical right.”
“The Republican Party geared its appeal and program to racism, reaction, and extremism,” King said in the book.
Note: And the Republican Party has been running this “Southern Strategy” in every election ever since.
The Democratic Party knowingly risked losing its Southern base with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. President Lyndon Johnson was reported to have said that “we have lost the South for a generation.” The Southern ‘Dixiecrats’ left the Democratic Party for the Republican Party, who welcomed them with open arms.
The Democratic Party took a moral stand and purged itself of its Southern racist past. The modern Republican Party openly embraced it.
These are the historical facts that you find so easy to forget when it suits your purpose.
Ah! You are missing the true point which is that change has come to the party which refused to seat Fannie Hamer and the black Mississippi delegation to a time when that same party, the Democratic party, nominated and the whole America elected a Black President!!! That is what we should celebrate – that change of such proportions could occur – and I submit to you that it is only in the Democratic Party that such a change was possible. I hope the Republican party will soon catch up!
Did you know Martin Luther King was a Republican and those he protested against and attacked his marches were Democrats? History is easy to forget when it suits your purpose.