Happy birthday, Doctor King
By John Worthen
For Between Editions
Although the official holiday is next Monday, today is the actual birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. No matter how many times I read the “I have a dream” speech, it always gives me renewed hope for this nation.
Here’s an excerpt: “This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s 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 prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
“Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
“Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
“But not 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.
“And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black 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, Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
For a full text of the speech, click here.
On the Web: The New York Times reprinted their coverage of King’s assassination in Memphis, complete with the actual front page as it looked on April 5, 1968, the day after King was shot. Click here to view.