step by step 第三册 lesson 118

Lesson 118 Martin Luther King: Lincoln Memorial Address

Lesson 118

Martin Luther King:

Lincoln Memorial Address

The Lincoln Memorial Address was delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Dr.King, the famous civil rights leader in the 1960s, was assassinated 1 in 1968.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic 2 shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation 3 Proclamation. This momentous 4 decree came as a great beacon 5 light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering 6 injustice 7. It came as a joyous 8 daybreak to end the long night of bad captivity 9.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation 10 and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished 11 in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we've come here today to dramatize a shameful 12 condition.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations 13. 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 14 by the storms of persecution 15 and staggered by the winds of police brutality 16. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue 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 changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live up to the true meaning of its creed 17: “We hold these truths to be self- evident; that all men are created equal.”

I 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 18.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis 19 of freedom and justice.

I 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 character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down 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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted 20, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked 21 places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew 22 out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords 23 of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will 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 will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning

My country, ‘tis or thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing:

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims’ 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 24 hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty 25 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 26 Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi!

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

When we let freedom 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 27, we are free at last!”