Monday, January 21, 2008

Make this a day ON, not off

And this is the need my friends of the hour. This is the need all over the nation. In every community there is a dire need for leaders (Yes) who will lead the people, who stand today amid the wilderness toward the promise land of freedom and justice. God grant that ministers, and lay leaders, and civic leaders, and businessmen, and professional people all over the nation will rise up and use the talent and the finances that God has given them, and lead the people on toward the Promised Land of freedom with rational, calm, nonviolent means. This is the great challenge of the hour. (Yes)

And if we will do this my friends we will be able to speed up the coming of this new order, (Yes) which is destined to come. (Yes) This new world in which men will be able to live together as brothers. (Yes) This new world in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of all human personality. This new world in which men will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. (Yes) Yes, this new world in which men will no longer take necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. (Yes, sir) This new world in which men will learn the old principle of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They will hear once more the voice of Jesus crying out through the generations saying, "Love everybody." (Yes) This is that world.

--A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations, Address at Freedom Rally, Martin Luther King Jr.

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