Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. Its always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good about you. And Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world. Im delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in? I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch Gods children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldnt stop there. I would move on by Greece and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon. And I would watch them around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldnt stop there. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldnt stop there. I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and aesthetic life of man. But I wouldnt stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for whom I am named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church of Wittenberg. But I wouldnt stop there. I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating President by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldnt stop there. I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. But I wouldnt stop there. Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy. Now thats a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. Thats a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding. Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- the cry is always the same: We want to be free. And another reason that Im happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didnt force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; its nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today. And also in the human rights revolution, if something isnt done, and done in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, Im just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period to see what is unfolding. And Im happy that Hes allowed me to be in Memphis. I can remember -- I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didnt itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in Gods world. And thats all this whole thing is about. We arent engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying -- We are saying that we are Gods children. And that we are Gods children, we dont have to live like we are forced to live. Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that weve got to stay together. Weve got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaohs court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, thats the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity. Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, weve got to keep attention on that. Thats always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers are on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didnt get around to that. Now were going to march again, and weve got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be -- and force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of Gods children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. Thats the issue. And weve got to say to the nation: We know how its coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory. We arent going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they dont know what to do. Ive seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there, we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, Aint gonna let nobody turn me around. Bull Connor next would say, Turn the fire hoses on. And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didnt know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didnt relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denominations, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water. That couldnt stop us. And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and wed go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and wed just go on singing Over my head I see freedom in the air. And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, Take em off, and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, We Shall Overcome. And every now and then wed get in jail, and wed see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldnt adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham. Now weve got to go on in Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us when we go out Monday. Now about injunctions: We have an injunction and were going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, Be true to what you said on paper. If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadnt committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we arent going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around, we arent going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on. We need all of you. And you know whats beautiful to me is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. Its a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones. And whenever injustice is around he tell it. Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and saith, When God speaks who can but prophesy? Again with Amos, Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Somehow the preacher must say with Jesus, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me, and hes anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor. And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; hes been to jail for struggling; hes been kicked out of Vanderbilt University for this struggle, but hes still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Reverend Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could just go right on down the list, but time will not permit. But I want to thank all of them. And I want you to thank them, because so often, preachers arent concerned about anything but themselves. And Im always happy to see a relevant ministry. Its all right to talk about long white robes over yonder, in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! Its all right to talk about streets flowing with milk and honey, but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who cant eat three square meals a day. Its all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, Gods preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do. Now the other thing well have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively -- that means all of us together -- collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? Thats power right there, if we know how to pool it. We dont have to argue with anybody. We dont have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We dont need any bricks and bottles. We dont need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, God sent us by here, to say to you that youre not treating his children right. And weve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where Gods children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you. And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy -- what is the other bread? -- Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Harts bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they havent been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town -- downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right. But not only that, weve got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a bank-in movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. Im not asking you something that we dont do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an insurance-in. Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here. Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that weve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. Weve got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. If it means leaving work, if it means leaving school -- be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together. Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus, and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. At points he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew and throw him off base.... Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didnt stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But he got down with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the I into the thou, and to be concerned about his brother. Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didnt stop. At times we say they were busy going to a church meeting, an ecclesiastical gathering, and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldnt be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that One who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony. And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem -- or down to Jericho, rather to organize a Jericho Road Improvement Association. Thats a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effect. But Im going to tell you what my imagination tells me. Its possible that those men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable. Its a winding, meandering road. Its really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles -- or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, youre about 2200 feet below sea level. Thats a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the Bloody Pass. And you know, its possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or its possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked -- the first question that the Levite asked was, If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me? But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him? Thats the question before you tonight. Not, If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor? The question is not, If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me? The question is, If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them? Thats the question. Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you. You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, Are you Martin Luther King? And I was looking down writing, and I said, Yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once thats punctured, your drowned in your own blood -- thats the end of you. It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had merely sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. Ive forgotten what those telegrams said. Id received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but Ive forgotten what that letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and Ill never forget it. It said simply, Dear Dr. King, I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School. And she said, While it should not matter, I would like to mention that Im a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And Im simply writing you to say that Im so happy that you didnt sneeze. And I want to say tonight -- I want to say tonight that I too am happy that I didnt sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream, and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in inter-state travel. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been around here in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man cant ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed -- If I had sneezed I wouldnt have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great Movement there. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. Im so happy that I didnt sneeze. And they were telling me --. Now, it doesnt matter, now. It really doesnt matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And weve had the plane protected and guarded all night. And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I dont know what will happen now. Weve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesnt matter with me now, because Ive been to the mountaintop. And I dont mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But Im not concerned about that now. I just want to do Gods will. And Hes allowed me to go up to the mountain. And Ive looked over. And Ive seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so Im happy, tonight. Im not worried about anything. Im not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 11:32:23 +0000
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