Реферат: Martin Luther King`S

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But 100 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 languished in the

corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And

so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve 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

that 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. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give

us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also

come to his 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 quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of

brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s