January 17th, 2011 / 10:16 am
Random

Dear Sentencewriters, today is a good day to examine closely the captivating prose of MLK

We have also come to this 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 children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

–Martin Luther King, Jr. (28 August 1963) Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C

[full text]

3 Comments

  1. Rion Amilcar Scott
  2. Race_Baiter

      I think you mean the captivating prose of Archibald Carey Jr.

  3. Dawn.

      That speech has given me goosebumps every time I read/watch it since I was six years old.