WEBVTT

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#InternetFreedomDay

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#MLKDay

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Fight for the Future

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Today, January 18th, is the first anniversary of the defeat of SOPA, the Internet censorship bill.

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And this weekend, we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech is as relevant today as it was in 1963.

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To honor his legacy as a freedom-fighter, we’re asking everyone to share this full video of his historic speech.

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But “I Have a Dream” is copyrighted. So sharing it is illegal.

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If SOPA had passed, you could’ve gone to jail for it.

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And entire websites could have been shut down just for linking to it.

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King’s call for racial justice is too important to be censored by broken copyright laws.

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Celebrate your freedom. Share this video now.

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["One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]

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A. PHILLIP RANDOLPH: At this time I have the honor to present to you

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the moral leader of our nation,

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I have the pleasure to present to you:

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Dr. Martin Luther King, J-R!

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[crowd cheering]

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DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: I am happy to join with you today

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in what will go down in history

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as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

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[crowd clapping]

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Five score years ago,

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a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today,

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signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

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This momentous decree came

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as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves

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who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.

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It came as a joyous day break

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to end the long night of their captivity.

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But one hundred years later,

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the Negro still is not free.

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One hundred years later,

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the l- the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation

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and the chains of discrimination.

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One hundred years later,

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the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty

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in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.

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One hundred years later,

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[crowd clapping]

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the N- the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society

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and finds himself an exile in his own land.

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And so we have come here today

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to dramatize a shameful condition.

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In a sense, we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.

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When the architects of our republic

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wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,

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they were signing a promissory note

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to which every American was to fall heir.

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This note was a promise that all men;

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yes, black men as well as white men;

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would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citzens of color are concerned.

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Instead of honoring this sacred obligation,

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America has given the Negro people a bad check.

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A check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

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[crowd cheering]

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But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

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[crowd laughing]

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We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

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So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand, the riches of freedom

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and the security of justice.

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[crowd cheering]

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We have also come to this hallowed spot

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to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.

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This is no time

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to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

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[crowd clapping]

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Now is the time

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to make real the promises of democracy.

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Now is the time

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to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

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Now is the time

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[crowd clapping]

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to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

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Now is the time

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[crowd clapping]

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to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

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It would be fatal for the nation

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to overlook the urgency of the moment.

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This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent

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will not pass

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until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

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Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning.

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Those who hope

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that the Negro needed to blow off steam

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and will now be content

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will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

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[crowd clapping]

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There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America

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until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.

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The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation

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until the bright day of justice emerges.

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But there is something that I must say to my people

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who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice.

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In the process of gaining our rightful place,

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we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.

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Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom

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by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

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[cries of "my lord"; crowd cheers]

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We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.

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We must not allow our creative protest

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to degenerate into physical violence.

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Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights

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of meeting physical force with soul force.

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The marvelous new militancy,

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which has engulfed the Negro community,

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must not lead us to a distrust of all white people.

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For many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today,

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have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

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[crowd cheering]

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And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

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We cannot walk alone.

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And as we walk,

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we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

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We cannot turn back.

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There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights,

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"When will you be satisfied?"

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We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the vic- victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

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We can never be satisfied,

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as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel,

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cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

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[crowd cheering]

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We cannot be satisfied

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as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

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We can never be satisfied

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as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating, "For Whites Only."

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[crowd cheering]

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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.

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[crowd cheering]

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No,

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no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls downs like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

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[crowd cheering]

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I am not mi-, unmindful

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that some of you have come here

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out of great trials and tribulations.

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Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells.

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Some of you have come from areas where your quest, quest for freedom

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left you battered by the storms of persecution

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and staggered by the winds of police brutality.

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You have been the veterans of creative suffering.

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Continue to work with the faith

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that unearned suffering

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is redemptive.

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Go back to Mississippi.

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Go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia,

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go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities,

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knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

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Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

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I say to you today, my friends,

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[crowd cheering]

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so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow,

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I still have a dream.

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It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.

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I have a dream

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that one day

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this nation will rise up

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and live out the true meaning of its creed:

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"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

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[crowd clapping]

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I have a dream

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that one day on the red hills of Georgia,

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the sons of former slaves and the f- sons of former slave owners,

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will bay- be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

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I have a dream that one day,

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even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the... heat of... injustice,

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sweltering with the heat of oppression,

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will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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I have a dream

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that my four little children

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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.

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I have a dream today.

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[crowd clapping]

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I have a dream that one day,

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down in Alabama with its vicious racists,

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with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification;

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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.

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I have a dream today.

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[crowd clapping]

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I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,

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and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight,

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and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

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This is our hope.

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This is the faith that I go back to the South with.

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With this faith,

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we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

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With this faith,

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we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation

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into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

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With this faith,

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we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together,

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knowing that we will be free one day.

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This will be the day.

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[crowd clapping]

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This will be the day when all of God's children

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will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

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Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

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And if America is to be a great nation,

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this must become true.

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So let freedom ring

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from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

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Let freedom ring

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from the mighty mountains of New York.

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Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

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Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado.

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Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

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But not only that.

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Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

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Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

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Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi!

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[crowd cheering] From every mountainside, let freedom ring! And when this happens,

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[crowd continues cheering]

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when we allow freedom ring,

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when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet,

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from every state and every city,

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we will be able to speed up that day

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when all of God's children,

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black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics,

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will be able to join hands and sing, in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

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"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty! We are free at last!"

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[crowd cheering]