OW, I 0 TO W R TIl qu tion,
"Where do we go from here?" which i our theme, we m t
fi hon y recognize where we are no . When the Con-
titution written, ran formula to determine t es and
represen tion decl red that the egro w i ty percent of a
penon. Today nother curio formul m to clare that
he i fifty percent of a person. • �
Of the good things in lite, the Negro has approximately
one halt those of whi . Of the bad thing of life, he h
twice th of hit . Th half of 11 egroes live in ub-
tandard housing. And egroes have half the income of
whi . When e view the ne tive experiences of life, the
Negro has double hare. There are twice many un-
employed. The r te of infant mortality among Negroes i
double that of whit and there are twice many Negroes
dying in Vietnam whit in proportion to their ize in the
population.
In other pheres, the figures are equally alarming. In
elementary schools, Negr lag one to three year behind
whit ,and their egregated hool receive sub tantiall
money per student that the white school. One-rw ntieth
many Negroes hi n d college. Of employed
Negroes, venty-five percent hold menial j
. Thi i wbere we are. Where� we go from here? First,
we must massively rt our dignity and worth. We must
tand up amidst a sy tern that till oppresses us and develop
n unassailable and majestic sense of values. We must no
longer be ashamed of being Blae The job of arousing man-
hood within a people that have been taught for many cen-
tun that they are nobody i y.
EVEN SEMANTICS HA V conspired to make th3t
which is Black seem ugly and degrading. In Roget'
Th urus there are 120 ynonyms for Blackn and t lea t
ixty of them are offensive, a for example, blot, soot, grim,
devil, and foul. And there are some 134 ynonym for white
n and all are favorable, expressed in such word as purity.
cleanliness, chastity and innocence. A white lie i tter than
a black lie. The most degenerate member of a family i a
"black sheep. "
Ossie Davis ha suggested that maybe the nglish lan
guage should be reconstructed so that teachers will not be
forced to teach the Negro child ixty ways to despi e himself,
and thereby perpetuate hi false sense of inferiority, and.the
white child 134 way to adore him elf, thereby perp tuate hi
fal sense of uperiority.
. The tendencr to ignore the Negro' contribution to
American life and to trip him of hi personhood i a old as
the earliest-hi tory books and as contemporary a the
morning' newspaper. To upset this cultural homicide, the
Negro must rise up with an affirmation of his own Olympian
manhood.
Any movement for the Negro's freedom that overlooks
this necessity is only waiting to be buried. As long as the
mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Py chological
freedom, a firm ense of self-esteem, i the most powerful
weapon against the long night of physical slavery.
No Lincolnian emancipation proclamation or John onian
civil rights bill can totally bring thi kind of freedom. The
Negro will only be free when he reache down to the inner
depths of hi own emancipation proclamation.
And, with pirit training toward true nation and-say to
himself and to the world, "I am somebody. I am a person. I
am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and noble his- .
tory. How painful and exploited that history has been. Yes, I
was a slave through my foreparent and I am not ashamed of
that. I'm ashamed of the people w 0 were sinful to make me
a lave." Yes, we must stand up and say, "I'm Black and
beautiful," and this self-affirmation is the Black man' need,
made compelling by the white man' crimes again t him.
ANOTIlER BA I� CRALL NGE is to discover how
to organize our trength in term of economic and political .
power. No one can deny that the Negro is in dire need of thi
kind otlegitimate power. Indeed, one of the great problems
that the Negro confronts is his lack of power. From old plan
tations of the South to newer ghetto of the North, the Negro
has been confined to a life of voicele nand powerle -
ness. Stripped of the right to make deci ion concerning hi
life and d tiny he has been ubject to the authoritarian and
sometimes whimsical deci ion of thi 'white power tru ture.
The plantation and ghetto were created by those wh had
power, both to confine those who had no power and to per
petuate their powerlessness.
The problem of tran forming the ghetto, therefore, I a·
problem of power--confrontation of the force of p wer of
the tatus quo. ow power properly under tin thin
but the ability to achieve purpose. It i the trength required
to bring about social, political and economic h nge. Walter
Reuther defined power one day. He id, "Power i the
ability of a labor union like the UAW to make the m t power
ful corporation in the world, General Motors, ay, 'Ye ' when
it wants to ay 'No'. That' power."
Now a lot of u are preacher ,and all of u have our mor' I
convictions and concern ,and often have problem WI th
power. 1,bere is nothing wr ng with power if power i used
correctly. You e, what A p�,ened i that some of our
phil phe got off ba . And one of the great problem of
hi tory is that the concepts or' UNe and power have usually
been contra ted oppo ites-polar opposite that love
This address, given in 1967,. was Dr. King's last, and most radical; SeLe presidential address.
i identified w,ith r ignation 0 po er, d po 'er with.
deni 1 of love.
It w thi mi interpretation that caused Nietzsche, who
w a phil pber of the will to pOwer, to reject the Christian
concept of love. It was this me mi interpre tion which in
duced Chri tian theologians to reject the Nietzschcan
phil phy 0 the will to power in the name of the Chri tian
ide of love. Now, we've got to get this thing right
What i needed i realization that power is sentimental
and anemic. Power at its best i love implementing the
demands of justice at its best i power correcting everything
th t stands gainst love. And this' what we must sec we
move on. What has happened i that we have bad it wrong
and confused in our own country, and this bas led Negro·
Americans in the past to seek their goal through power
devoid of love and conscience.
TIll I LEADING few extremists today to advocate
for Negroes that same destructive and conscienceless power
that they have justly abhorred in whites. It is precisely this
collision of immoral power with powerless morality which
nstiture the major crisi of our times.
We must develop program that will drive the nation to a
guaranteed annual income. Now, early in thi century this
proposal would have beeo greeted with ridicule and denuncia
tion, as destructive of initiative and responsibility. At that
ti me economic tatus was considered the measure of the
individual's ability and talents. And, in the thinking of that
day, t e aOO nee of worldl y goods indicated a want of in-
du trious habits and moral fiber. We've come long way in
our unde ndin of human mo d of t bUnd
operation of our economic ystem.
Now we realize that di locations in the market operations
of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust
people into idlene and bind them in constant ex frequent un
employment again t their will. Today the poor are I often
dismi ed, I hope, from our consciences hy being branded as
inferior or incompetent. We also know that no matter how .
dynamically the economy develops and expands, it does not
eliminate It poverty.
The problem indicates that our emphasis must be twofold.
We mu t create full employment or we must create incomes.
People mu t be made consumers by one method or the other.
Once they are placed in this position we need to be concerned
that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms
of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised
for those for whom traditional job are not available. In 1879
Henry George antici pated this state of affairs when he 'wrote
in 'Progre. and Poverty'.
The fact is that the work which improves the condition of
mankind, the work which extends knowledge and increases
power and enriches literature and elevates thought, is oot
done to ecure a living. It is not the work of slaves driven to
their tasks either by the task, by the taskmaster, or by animal
necessi ty. It is the work of men who somehow find a form of
work that brings a security for its own sake and a state of
ociery where want i abolished.
ORK OF TIllS SORT could be enormously in
creased, and we are likely to find that the problems of housing
and education, instead of preceding the elimination of pover
ty, will themselve be affected if poverty is first abolished.
The poor transformed into purchasers will 'do a great deal on
their own to alter housing decay. Negroes who have a double
disability will have a greater effect on discrimination when
they have the additional weapon of cash to use i their trug
gle.
Beyond these advantages, a h to positive psychological
chang inevitably will result from widespread economic
ecurity. The dignity of the individual will flourish when !he
decisions concerning his life are in his own bands, when he
h the mean to seek self-improvement. Personal conflicts
among husbands, wives and children will diminish when the
unjust measurement of human worth on the scale of dollars i
eliminated.
Now our country can do thi . John Kenneth Galbraith
aid that a guaranteed annual income could be done for about
twenty billion dollars a year. And I say to you today, that if
ur nation can spend thirty-five billion dollar a year to fight
an unjust. evil war in Vietnam, and twenty billion dollars to
put a man on the moon, it can pend billions of dollars to put
G 'children n their own two feet right here on earth.
Now. let me ay briefly that we must reaffirm our commit
ment t nonviolence. I want to tres thi . The futility of
rolcnce in the truggle for racial justice has been tragically
et � in • 11 the recent Negro riots. Y terday, I tried to
na e the rio and deal with their causes. Today I want to
give th - other ide. There i certainly something painfully sad
about a riot. On sees creaming young ter ar 1 angry adults
fighting hopele Iy and aiml Iy against impo ible odds.
And deep down within them, you can ee a desire for self
destruction, a kind of suicidal longing.
o
contend that the 1965
10
. LV
GRO
Watt not and 0 per riots in variou cities represented effec-
tIve Civil right action. But th e who expr this view al-
way end up \vlth tumbling word when cd what concrete
gains have been won as a result. At best. the riots have
produced a little additional antipoverty money allotted by
frightened government officials, and a few water- prinklers to
I the children of the ghett . It i mething like improv-
ing the food in the pn n while the people remain ecurely in-
career ted behind b NO'Nhere have the ri won any con-
crete improvement uch have the organized prot t
demonstr tio .
When one tri to pin do n dvocat 0 violence to
what acts would be effective, the answers are blatantly illogi
cal. Sometimes they talk about guerill wart': reo They fail to
see that no internal revolution h ever coeeded in over-
throwing a government by violence unl the government
had already I t i allegiance nd effective control of i
rmed forces. Anyone in hi right mind know that thi will
not happen in the United St. In violent racial situ tion,
the power tructure has the local police, the tate trooper the
. National Guard and, finally, the army to call ob-all of which
are predominately white.
UR'OIERMORE, FEW I ANY violent revolutions
have been aucc::easful unlCII the violent minority bad the aym
pathy nd support of the non . nt majority. Cutro may
have had only a few Cubans ctually fighting with him up the
hill ,but he could neve have overthrown the Bati ta regime
unl he had the ympathy of the v t majority of Cuban
people.
·It i perfectly clear that a violent revolution on the part of
American Blacks would find no ympathyand upport from
. the white population and very little from the majority of the
Negroes themselves. This i not time for romantic illusions
and empty philosophical debates about freedom. This i a
time for action. What is needed is a strategy for change, a tac
tical program that will bring the Negro into the mainstream of
American life quickly ible. So far, thi has only
bee" oft'e by the n vi t ovem t. Wlnt t
ing thia we will end up with so tiona that don't lve,
answers that don t answer and explanations that don't explain.
And so I say to you today that I still stand by nonviolence.
And I am still convinced that it is the most potent weapon
available to the Negro in his truggle for justice in this
country. And the other thing i that I am concerned for a bet
ter world. I'm concerned about justice. I'm concerned about
brotherhood. I'm concerned about truth. And when one i
concerned about these, he can never advocate violence. For
through violence you may murder a murder but you can't mur
der murder. Through violence you may murder a hater, but
you can't murder hate. Darkness cannot put outdarkness.
Only light can do that.
AND I S Y to you, I have decided to tick to love. For I
know love is ultim tely the only answer to mankind's
problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I
know it isn't popular to talk about it in orne circles today .
I'm not talking' about emotional bosh when I talk about love,
I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. And I have seen
too much hate. I've een too much hate on the faces of
sheriffs in the South.
. I've een hate on the faces of too many Klansmen and too'
many White Citizens Councilors in the South to want to hate
my elf, because every time I see it, I know that it does some
thing to their face and their personaliti and I say to myself
that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love.
If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it
through 10 e. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving
again t ong when we do it, because John was right, God is
love. He hates does not know God, but he who has love
has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate
. reality.
I want to say to you as I move t�my conclusion, as we
talk about "Where do we go from here," that we honestly face
the fact that the movement must address itself to the question
of restructuring the whole of American society. There are
forty million poor people here. And one day we must a k the
question, "Why are there forty million poor people in
America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are
raising questions about the economic system, about a broader
distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin
to question the capitali tic economy. And I'm imply saying
that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions
about the whole society. We are called upon to help the dis
couraged beggar in life's marketplace. But one day we must
come to ee that an edifice which produces beggars needs
restructuring. It means that questions must be raised, You
ee, my friends, when you deal with thi ,'you begin to a k the
question, "Who owns the oil?" You begin to ask the que tion,
"Who owns the iron ore?" You begin to ask the question,
"Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that
i two-thirds water?" These are questions that must be asked.
Now, don't think that you have me in a "bind" today. I'm
not talking about communism.
What I'm ying to you this morning is that communism
forgets that life i individual. Capitalism forgets that life i so
cial, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the :
the is of communi m nor the antithe is of capitali m but in a .
higher synthesis. It is found in a higher ynthesi that
bin the truth of both. Now, when I y question the hole
iety, it mean ultimately coming to see that the p blem of
raci m, the problem of economic exploitation, and the prob
lem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evil that
ar� interrelated.
If you will let me be a preacher ju t a little bit - One
night, a juror came to Jesus and he wanted to know what he
could do to be ved. Jesu did.n't get bogged down in the
kind of isolated appro ch of what he outdn't do. Jes
didn't y, "Now Nicodem , you must top lying." He
didn't say, "Nicodemus, you must stop cheating if you arc
doing that." He didn't Say, "Nicodemus, you mu t not com-
mit adultery." He didn't y, "Nicodem nO'N you must
top drintin liquo if you e doing that ex
. d me . n ltogether different. bcca J realized
somethin ie - that if if man willlic, be will teal. And
if man will teal, be will kill. So inst d of just getting
bogged down in one thing, J u 100 ed at him nd id,
"Nicodemus, you m t be born gain."
He id, in other ords, "Your whole tructure must be
changed." A nation that will keep people in lavery for 244
ears will "thingify" them - m lee them things. Tbereforc
ey will exploit them, and poor people generally, economlcal
Iy. And a nation that will exploit economically will have to
have foreign inv tments and everything else, nd will have
to use i military might to protect them. All of th
problems are tied together. Wbat I am ying today i that we
must go from this convention and say, "America, you mu be
born againl"
ft-
. SO, I CONCLUDE BY SAYING gain today that we
h3 k and lot us gomt with a "divine di ti faction."
Let us be' ti led until America will no longer have a high
blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. Let us be
dissatisfied until the tragic walla that separate the outer city of
wealth and comfort and the innee city of poverty and despair
shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice.
Let us be di tisfied until those that live on the outskirts of
hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security. Let us
be dissatisfied until lums are cast into the junk heaps of his
tory, and every family is living in a decent nitary home. Let
be dl tt ed until tho ys of· cd
schools will be transformed into briaht tomorrO'N1 of quali,>,.
integrated education. Let us be di tisfied until integration i
not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in
the beauty of diversity. Let us be di tisfied until men and
women, however black they may be, will be judged on the
basis of the content of their character and not on the basis of
the color of their skin. Let us be dissatisfied. Let us be dis
satisfied until every slate capitol houses 8 governor who will
do justly, who will love mercy and who will walk humbly
with his God. Let us be di tisfied until from every city ball,
justice will roll down like waters and righteousn like a
mighty stream. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when the
lion and the lamb ball tie down together, and every man will
sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.
Let us be dissatisfied. And men will recognize that out of one
blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth.
Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout
"White Power!" - when nobody will shout "Blaclc Power!"
- but everybody will ta!k about God's power and human
power.
I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not always
be smooth. There will be till rocky places of frustration and
meandering points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable
setbacks here and there. There will be those moments when
the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of
despair. Our dreams will sometimes be battered and our
ethereal hopes blasted. We may again with tear-drenched
eyes have to stand before the bier of some courageous civil
rights worker whose life will be snuffed out by the dastardly
acts of bloodthirsty mobs. Difficult and painful as it is, we
must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the
future. And as we continue our charted course, we may gain
consolation in the words so nobly left by the great black bard
who was also a great freedom fighter of yesterday, James Wel
don Johnson:
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter tM chastening rod
Felt in the days
When hope unborn had died.
Yet with a steady beat,
. Have not CXlr wearyJeet
Come to the place
For which our lathers sighed?
We have come over the way
That with tears hath been watered.
We have come treading our pams
Through the blood olIM laughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Til now we stand aJ last
Where the bright gleam
Of our bright star is cast.
Let this affirmation be our ringing cry. It will give us the
courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It wilt give our
tired feet new strength as we continue our forward tride
toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary
with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights be-
come darker than a tho nd midnights, let us remember that
here is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down
t gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is ble to make a
wa out of no way and transform dark y terday into bright
tom rrows. Let realize the arc of the moral universe is
long but it bend toward justice.
Let us realize that William �llen Bryant is right:" th
crushed to earth will ri again." Let us go out realizing tha
the Bible i right: "Be not deceived, God is not mocked
Whatsoever a man soweth, that all he also reap." Thi i for
hope for the future, and with thi f ith we will bt able to sing
in some not too di !ant tomorrow with cosmic past tense,
"We have overcome, we have overoome. deep in my heart, I
did believe we would overcome."