Thread by @ACLU

Today is the 58th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have A Dream speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

His call for freedom still rings out “from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city.”

Let’s revisit some of his words from that day.

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation…But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.” #IHaveADream

“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 in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.” #IHaveADream

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

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation…” #IHaveADream

“…And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.” #IHaveADream

“This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

1963 is not an end, but a beginning.” #IHaveADream

“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” #IHaveADream

“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.” #IHaveADream

“No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” #IHaveADream

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

“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.” #IHaveADream

“…When we allow 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…” #IHaveADream

“…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!’” #IHaveADream