enomination in the United States.
Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in eloquent historical introduction and Generous And Then Thought about myself, I Wonderer Who He Was talking about. It's always good to Have Your closest friend and associate say something good about you. And Ralph is the best friend That I Have in the world.
I'm delighted to see
Each of you here tonight in Spite of a storm warning. Reveal You That You Are Determined to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis, Something Is Happening in Our World.
As you know, if I were standing at the Beginning of time, with the Possibility of general and panoramic view of the whole human history up to now, and the Almighty Said to meissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of man. But I Would not Stop There. Would I go by the way events That the man I'm named for Whom Had historical habitat. And I Would I watch Martin Luther as historical tacked ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg. But I Would not Stop There. Would I come on events up to 1863, and watch a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion That I Had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I Would not Stop There. I Would events come up the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the Problems of the bankruptcy of historical nation. And come with an eloquent cry That We Have Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself.
But I Would not Stop There. Strangely enough, I Would turn to the Almighty, And say, "If you allow me to live Just a few years in the second half of the Twentieth Century, I will be happy." Now that's a strange statement to make, Because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, That Only When it is dark enough, can you see the stars. And I see God working in this Period of the Twentieth Century in a Way That men, in Some Strange Way, Are Responding - something is happening in our world ". Are the masses of people rising up. And Wherever They Are assembled today, whether They are in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nairobi, Kenya: Accra, Ghana, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, Jackson, Mississippi, or Memphis, Tennessee - the cry is always the same - &eglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I'm happy that he's allowed me to be in Memphis.
I can remember, I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didn't itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God's world.
And that's all this whole thing is about. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God's children. And that we don't have to live like we are forcedto live.
Now, What does all of this mean in this great Period of history? It Means That we've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and Maintain unity. You know, Whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the Period of Slavery in Egypt, I Had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What WAS that? He Kept Themselves Among the slaves fighting. But Whenever the slaves get together, Something Happens in Pharaoh's court, and I Can not hold the slaves in Slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the Beginning of getting out of Slavery. Now let us Maintain unity.
secondly, let us keep the Issues Where They are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the Refusal of Memphis To Be fair and honest in STI STI Dealings with public servants, Who Happen to Be sHoses on the fire. "And as I Said To You The Other Night, Bull Connor Did not know history. I Knew a kind of physics somehow That Did not recount to the transphysics That We Knew about. And That Was The Fact That There Was a Certain Kind of Fire That Could not put out water. And We Went Before The Fire Hoses, We Had Known water. If We Were Baptist or Some Other DENOMINATION, We Had Been Immersed. If We Were Methodist, and Some Others, We Had Been sprinkled, pero we Knew water.
That Could not stop us. And Before we just jump up on the dogs and we Would look at Them, and we'd go on Before the water Would Hoses and we look at it, and we'd just go on singing. "Over my head I see freedom in the air." And then we Would Be Thrown in the paddy wagons, and subjectedl injunction. All we say to America is, "Be true to what you said on paper." If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.
We need all of you. And you know what's beautiful to me, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and Aspirations of the people more Than the preacher? Somehow the preacher Must Be an Amos, and say, "Let justice roll down like Waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow, the preacher must-say with Jesus, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because I hath Anointed me to deal with the Problems of the poor. "
And I want to Commend the Preachers, under the leadership of These noble men: James Lawson, One Who Has Been in this Struggle for Many Years, he's been to jail Struggling for, BUT he's still going on, fighting for the rights of His people. Rev. Ralph Jackson, Billy Kilesa; I Could just go right on down the list, But Time Will Not permit. But I want to thank them all. And I want you to thank Them, Becauseknow how to pool it.
We Do not Have to argue with anybody. We Do not Have to curse and go around acting bad with Our words. We do not need bricks and bottles and Stock, We Do not Need Any Molotov cocktails, we just Need to go around to These stores, and to These massive industries in Our Country, and say, "God sat us by here, to say to You That You're Not Children treating historical right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda - fair Treatment, Where God's Children Are Concerned. Now, if You are Not Prepared to Do That, We Do Have An Agenda That We Must follow. And Our agenda calls for withdrawing Economic support from you. "
And so, as a result of this, We Are Asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors to Notbuy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell Them Not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell Them Not to buy - what is the Other bread? - Wonder Bread. And What is The Other bread company, Jesse? Tell Them Not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has Said, up to now, only the garbage men Have Been feeling pain, now we must-kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing These companies fair Because They Have not Been in Their Hiring Policies, and We Are choosing dog Them Because They begin the process of Saying, They Are going to support the Needs and the rights of These men Who are on strike. And Then They Can Move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do What is right. But not only
That, we've got to Strengthen Institutions black. I call upon you to take you money out of the banks downtown tond deposit you money in Tri-State Bank - we want to "bank-in" Movement in Memphis. So go by the savings and loan association. I'm Not Asking You Something That We Do not do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and Others will tell you That we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We're just telling you to follow What we're doing. Put your money There. You Have six or seven black insurance companies in Memphis. Take out your insurance There. We Want To Have an "insurance-in."
Practical Now There Are Some Things We Can do. We begin the process of building a Greater Economic base. And at the Same time, putting pressure We Are Where It really hurts. I ask you to follow through herelled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn't stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, because he had the capacity to project the "I" into the "thou," and to be concerned about his brother. Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn't stop. At times we say they were busy going to church meetings--an eccles, And I Said Yes. And the next minute I felt Something beating on my chest. Before I Knew it I Had Been stabbed by this demented woman. I Was Rushed to Harlem Hospital. It Was a dark Saturday afternoon. That blade And Had gone through, and the X-rays Revealed That the tip of the blade WAS on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. Eleven And that's punctured, you drown in your own blood - that's the end of you.
It came out in the New York Times the next morning, That If I had sneezed, I Would Have Died. Well, about four days later, They allowed me, after the operation, after my chest Had Been Opened, and the blade Had Been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read Some Of That Came in the mail, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters in meat. I read A Few, But One of Them I will never forget. I Had Received one from the President and the Vice-President. What I've forgotten Those Telegrams said. I'd Receiver to visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, But I've forgotten What the letter said. But There Was Another letter That Came From a little girl, a young girl Who Was a student at the White Plains High School. And I Look at That letter, and I'll never forget it. Said it simply, "Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the Whites Plains High School." She Said, "Not While Should it matter, I Would like to mention That I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your Suffering. And I read That If You Had sneezed, you Would Have Died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."
And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.
And they were telling me, now it doesn't matter now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, t