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. In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. 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 life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.īut one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.įive score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech is considered one of the, if not the, greatest American speeches of the 20th century. The demonstration was one of the largest political rallies in American history, and demanded economic and civil rights for American Americans. On August 29, 1963, over 200,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, for the March on Washington. Video Video related to watch: martin luther king jr.’s “i have a dream” speech T03:02:46-05:00