Keepingitreal

"I Have a Dream - MLK" delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

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 their 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 languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we have 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 quick sands 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. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always 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; 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, 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 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 a 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. 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 snowcapped 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 to 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!"

The 7 Days of Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa or Kwanza, secular seven-day festival in celebration of the African heritage of African Americans, beginning on Dec. 26. Developed by Maulana Karenga and first observed in 1966, Kwanzaa is based in part on traditional African harvest festivals but particularly emphasizes the role of the family and community in African-American culture. Each day is dedicated to a particular principle (unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith), and on each day one of the candles on a seven-branched candelabrum is lighted. The celebration also includes the giving of gifts and a karamu, or African feast.

The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa [Nguzo Saba]
1) Umojo (Unity) To Strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
2) Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ouselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
3) Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.
4) Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
5) Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
6) Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
7) Imani (Faith) To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Dr. King’s Documents Withdrawn From Auction

On the eve of a planned Sotheby’s auction of three documents related to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harry Belafonte, the singer and a friend of Dr. King who owned the papers, withdrew the items for sale.In a brief statement released on Wednesday afternoon, Sotheby’s said the items had been removed from the auction roster “at the request of Mr. Harry Belafonte.” Sotheby’s gave no reason for the withdrawal, and Mr. Belafonte did not return calls left with his agent.The items scheduled for the auction on Thursday included a three-page handwritten outline of one of Dr. King’s most important speeches, “The Casualties of the War in Vietnam,” delivered in February 1967, and notes for a speech recovered from his suit pocket after he was assassinated in 1968. The third document was a typewritten condolence letter to Coretta Scott King, Dr. King’s widow, from President Lyndon B. Johnson.After news reports early this week about the auction the King estate released a statement condemning the sale and saying that it believed the documents had been “wrongly acquired” by Mr. Belafonte.“The King estate contends that these documents are the property of the estate of Martin Luther King Jr.,” the statement read. “Mrs. Coretta Scott King and the King estate stopped a previous attempt by members of Harry Belafonte’s family to anonymously and secretly auction wrongfully acquired King documents through a Beverly Hills auction house.” In the statement the estate said lawyers were “looking into issues related to the December 11th Sotheby’s auction of King documents.”Joseph M. Beck, a lawyer representing the King estate, did not return calls or an e-mail message seeking comment. Calls to Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, children of Dr. King, were not returned. Phillip Jones, a King family representative, and Isaac Newton Farris Jr., a nephew of Dr. King and president of the King Center in Atlanta, did not return calls.In a telephone interview before Mr. Belafonte withdrew the items for sale, David Redden, vice chairman of Sotheby’s, said that the outline for the anti-Vietnam War speech was written in Mr. Belafonte’s Manhattan apartment. The notes from Dr. King’s pocket, Mr. Redden said, had originally been given by Mrs. King to Stanley Levinson, an adviser to Dr. King, who left the notes to Mr. Belafonte. Mr. Redden said that Mrs. King had given the condolence letter to Mr. Belafonte. Mr. Redden, who estimated the documents together could fetch from $750,000 to $1.3 million, declined to comment on whether the King family objected to the sale of the papers. SOURCE:NYT.COM

WE HAVE OVERCOME: BARACK OBAMA ELECTED 44TH PRESIDENT

Long-buried stories of slavery now heard

Back in the 1970s, when the first African American rangers arrived at Independence National Historical Park, they quickly noticed that little of their own heritage appeared in stories told at famous park sites.It rankled, and one of them argued that the narratives should be more inclusive. "Hey, we need to get some more diverse stories going here," he urged, according to Joe Becton, a park ranger since 1986. But, says Becton, it "didn't have much impact."In the early 1980s, Charles Blockson, curator of the Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University, argued that at least the abolitionists, who named the Liberty Bell and transformed it into an antislavery symbol, should get a nod. The park eventually agreed, but in the view of many, that nod often amounted to only cursory mentions at the old Liberty Bell pavilion.In the 1990s, a new management plan acknowledged that African American history should be a part of park offerings, and suggested African American programming for Washington Square. Again, not much happened.But since 2002 - when controversy erupted over slavery in George Washington's household and the park's failure to acknowledge it - a great change has swept over Independence Park.Becton now conducts popular Underground Railroad walking tours.Liberty Bell visitors now hear about abolitionism, slavery, women's rights, immigrant struggles, human rights around the world - and the role the bell has played in all.The National Constitution Center now displays African American artifacts found during the archaeological excavation that preceded the center's construction. A private organization, it has presented programs and exhibitions of particular significance to African Americans and is part of the city's Quest for Freedom trail, which traces the course of the Underground Railroad.In a year or so, according to officials there, visitors at the African American Museum of Philadelphia a block off Independence Mall on Seventh Street will see a new permanent exhibition on 18th- and early-19th-century black life in Philadelphia.SOURCE: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

THE MOUTHPIECE OF 14 MILLION PEOPLE

February 26, 2008 -- Today's page looks at the Chicago Defender, which became the world's largest black newspaper. The Chicago Defender was founded by Robert S. Abbott on May 5, 1905,and lauded itself as the "world's greatest weekly." The Defender was the nation's most influential black weekly newspaper at the start of World War I. Abbott started the paper with 25 cents and 300 copies, working out of a small kitchen in his landlord's Chicago apartment.The first editions were handbills containing local news items gathered mostly from other papers. The Defender did not use the words "black" or "Negro." African-Americans were referred to as "the Race." It was militant in its decry of racial injustice and famous for blazing headlines and graphic images that depicted the injustices blacks suffered in the United States, including lynchings. The paper soon attracted national attention. The Defender provided firsthand coverage of the infamous Red Summer Race Riots of 1919, which broke out in cities across the country.The paper was in full support of the Great Migration (1915-1925), urging Southern blacks to leave the racially oppressive South and head North for better opportunities. The paper featured job listings and train schedules, and referred to the famed migration as the "Great Northern Drive." More than 110,000 blacks came to Chicago alone, nearly tripling the city's African-American population.It was no surprise that distributors in the South refused to circulate the paper. The Defender was smuggled in by Pullman porters and entertainers, passed from personto person and read aloud in barber shops and churches. The Chicago Defender was the first black newspaper to have a circulation of more than 100,000, a health column and a full page of comics. SOURCE OF THIS STORY

Moments in Black History

Ala. Black Belt region looks to rich history for economic boost

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — From the birth of the Confederacy to the struggles of the civil rights movement, the Black Belt region of Alabama has been the center for much of the state's — and the USA's — history.Now, a grass-roots effort is underway to give this historic region a brighter future by getting it designated a National Heritage Area. The Black Belt, which includes Montgomery, Selma and 19 counties, is a crescent-shaped swath of dark, prairie soil that bisects central Alabama from Mississippi to Georgia. Nationally, the Black Belt region stretches from Virginia to Texas. Originally named for its dark soil, the region has taken on a political and social definition because of its large African-American population. Designation as a National Heritage Area — a congressional decision — could jump-start tourism in the economically depressed Alabama part of the region, says Tina Naremore Jones, director of the University of West Alabama's Center for the Study of the Black Belt. The process can take two to three years to complete, depending on how legislation travels in Congress, says Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., whose district covers most of the Black Belt. FIND MORE STORIES IN: Congress | Texas | Atlanta | Georgia | Virgina | Virginia | Richmond | African-American | Civil War | National Park Service | Department | Martin Luther King Jr. | Pulitzer Prize-winning | Postal Service | Gee | Bend | Mockingbird | Confederacy | To Kill | Monroeville | D-Ala | Edmund Pettus Bridge | Selma-to-Montgomery | Rep. Artur Davis | Dallas County Sheriff | Alabama River | Sumter County | Alabama Cooperative Extension Service | Hale County

Efforts by the Black Belt Heritage Area Task Force, which Jones co-chairs, have been underway for about a year. "This is not something that will move through Congress in a few months," Davis says. "It requires a tremendous amount of groundwork and preparation before ever making it to Congress. The area has to be defined, (and) gathering community support is beneficial. Once it is introduced, I don't foresee any trouble in it making it through the process. These are usually non-controversial efforts." Jones says she hopes Davis can introduce the legislation in Congress this year. SOURCE OF THIS STORY