我有一個夢想 I Have a Dream
馬丁·路德·金/Martin Luther King
馬丁·路德·金（1929-1968），美國著名的黑人民權運動領袖，基督教牧師和律師，曾任南方基督教領袖會主席。被譽為近百年來八大最具有說服力的演說家之一。他出身於亞特蘭大黑人牧師家庭，畢業於克澤神學院和波士頓大學，先後獲得文學士、神學士及博士學位。1954年，參加美國有色人種協進會活動。1964年獲諾貝爾和平獎。1968年4月，他在田納西州孟菲斯被一位白人青年雷伊槍殺身亡，享年39歲。
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation 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 languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense, we have come to our nation' s Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.