"I HAVE A DREAM" BY MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

[excerpted and adapted]

One hundred years ago, Lincoln signed a law that gave freedom to all slaves in the United States. But one hundred years later, the Negro¹ is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly chained by segregation² and discrimination. When the creators of our vast republic wrote the magnificent words of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they were making a promise to all of their children. This promise was that all men would be guaranteed the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is clear today that America has not kept her promise as far as her citizens of color are concerned.

Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro just needed to blow off steam³ and will now be content will have a rude awakening⁴ if the nation returns to doing things the way they have always been done.

There will be neither rest nor peace in America until the Negro is given his rights as a citizen. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand waiting at the doorway into the palace of justice. In the process of getting our rights, we must not be guilty of wrongful acts. We must not allow our protest to fall into violence. Again and again we must rise to the challenge of meeting physical force with soul force. Go back to Mississippi. Go back to Alabama. Go back to Georgia. Go back to the ghettos⁵ of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

In spite of the difficulties of the moment, I still have a dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed⁶: that all men are created equal. I have a dream that my four 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 in the state of Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and little white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able 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 new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims'⁷ 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 hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the peaks⁸ of California! Let freedom ring from every hill in Mississippi. When we let freedom ring, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual⁹", "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

• discrimination
• slave
• republic
• constitution
• physical
• character

Malcolm X: "By Any Means Necessary"

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Nebraska on May 19, 1925. His father died when he was thirteen, and a few years later, he began a life of crime. He was arrested for stealing in 1945 and spent seven years in prison. While there, Malcolm educated himself by reading books. At the urging of two of his brothers, he joined the Nation of Islam. After leaving prison, he became a minister for the Nation of Islam and then an important leader in the African- American civil rights movement. Malcolm took the last name "X" to symbolize his true, unknown African name.

Malcolm X had a different philosophy than that of Martin Luther King. While King wanted black and white people to live together peacefully, Malcolm X at first claimed that black people were superior to white people and that the two races should live separately. Also, while King urged equal civil rights under US law, Malcolm X emphasized equal human rights. He saw the struggle for equality as international and wanted to bring about worldwide change at the United Nations. Whereas King stressed non-violence, Malcolm X said that African Americans should be able to protect themselves "by any means necessary"—including with the use of weapons.

Later in his life, Malcolm X stopped calling whites a race of "devils." He continued, however, to encourage black people to have pride in their heritage, and he continued to advocate violence, if necessary. Malcolm X was shot to death while giving a speech in New York on February 21, 1965.