On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., who led the protests against racial discrimination in the U.S., addressed a huge crowd of 250,000 people in Washington. He gave a powerful speech that became a legend. After saying that, in spite of laws giving freedom to former slaves, racial discrimination continued, he said:
“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…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 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 that one day… little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers…
“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…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.”
Fr Joe Mannath SDB
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