BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//InvisionCommunity Events 4.7.23//EN METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN REFRESH-INTERVAL:PT15M X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT15M X-WR-CALNAME:RMCommunityCalendar NAME:RMCommunityCalendar BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:MLK jr : FREE AT LAST SPEECH DTSTAMP:20250724T023308Z SEQUENCE:0 UID:417-7-c3fe8195a3dde498d013e477e2142422@aalbc.com ORGANIZER;CN="richardmurray":troy@aalbc.com DESCRIPTION:\n TEXT\n\n\n\n https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/356-mlk-jr- free-at-last-speech/\n\n\n\n OR\n\n\n\n Five score years ago\, a great Ame rican\, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today\, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope t o 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 cap tivity.\n\nBut 100 years later\, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later\, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacle s 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 oc ean of material prosperity. One hundred years later the Negro is still lan guished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in h is own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful conditio n. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.\n\n \n\n When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Con stitution and the Declaration of Independence\, they were signing a promis sory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promis e that all men — yes\, Black men as well as white men — would be guara nteed the unalienable rights of life\, liberty and the pursuit of happines s.\n\nIt is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory no te insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring thi s sacred obligation\, America has given the Negro people a bad check\, a c heck which has come back marked insufficient funds.\n\nBut we refuse to be lieve that the bank of justice is bankrupt.\n\nWe refuse to believe that t here are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nat ion. And so we've come to cash this check\, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.\n\nWe 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 tra nquilizing drug of gradualism.\n\n \n\nNow is the time to make real the pr omises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate va lley 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 r ock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of G od's children.\n\nIt would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate disconten t will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equal ity. 1963 is not an end\, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro n eeded to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.\n\nThere will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rig hts. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of ou r nation until the bright day of justice emerges.\n\nBut there is somethin g 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.\n\n \n\nWe must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into phys ical violence. Again and again\, we must rise to the majestic heights of m eeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which h as engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all whit e 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.\n\nAnd they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricab ly bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk\, we must ma ke the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.\n\nTh ere 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 lo dging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.\n\nWe ca nnot 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 statin g: for whites only.\n\nWe cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Missis sippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for whic h to vote.\n\nNo\, no\, we are not satisfied\, and we will not be satisfie d until justice rolls down like waters\, and righteousness like a mighty s tream.\n\n \n\nI am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of g reat 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 p olice brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continu e 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 chan ged.\n\nLet us not wallow in the valley of despair\, I say to you today\, my friends.\n\nSo even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorr ow\, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dre am. 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.\n\n \n\nI 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.\n\nI have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi\, a state swelter ing with the heat of injustice\, sweltering with the heat of oppression wi ll be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.\n\nI 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 char acter. I have a dream today.\n\nI have a dream that one day down in Alabam a with its vicious racists\, with its governor having his lips dripping wi th the words of interposition and nullification\, one day right down in Al abama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with li ttle white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream to day.\n\nI 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.\n\n \n\nThis is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this fa ith\, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hop e. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of o ur nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we wil l 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 w ill be free one day.\n\nThis will be the day when all of God's children wi ll be able to sing with new meaning: My country\, 'tis of thee\, sweet lan d of liberty\, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died\, land of the pi lgrims' pride\, from every mountainside\, let freedom ring.\n\nAnd if Amer ica is to be a great nation\, this must become true. And so let freedom ri ng from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from th e mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alle ghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of C olorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But no t 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.\ n\nAnd when this happens\, and when we allow freedom ring\, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet\, from every state and every cit y\, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children\, Blac k 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: F ree at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty\, we are free at last.\n\n\n \n REFERRAL\n\n\n\n https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-drea m-speech-in-its-entirety\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n Civil righ ts leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln Memori al in Washington\, D.C.\, where he gave his \"I Have a Dream\" speech on A ug. 28\, 1963\, as part of the March on Washington.\n\n\n\n AFP via Getty Images\n\n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250209 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR