【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 he last time a President sent a civil rights bill to the Congress, it contained a provision to protect voting rights in Federal elections. That civil rights bill was passed after eight long months of debate. And when that bill came to my desk from the Congress for my signature, the heart of the voting provision had been eliminated. This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, or no hesitation, or no promise with our purpose.
　　We cannot, we must not, refuse to protect the right of every American to vote in every election that he may desire to participate in. And we ought not, and we cannot, and we must not wait another eight months before we get a bill. We have already waited a hundred years and more, and the time for waiting is gone.
　　So I ask you to join me in working long hours nights and weekends, if necessary to pass this bill. And I donamp。39。t make that request lightly. For from the window where I sit with the problems of our country, I recognize that from outside this chamber is the outraged conscience of a nation, the grave concern of many nations, and the harsh judgment of history on our acts.
　　But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. Because itamp。39。s not just Negroes, but really itamp。39。s all of us, who must overe the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.
　　And we shall overe.
　　As a man whose roots go deeply into Southern soil, I know how agonizing racial feelings are. I know how difficult it is to reshape the attitudes and the structure of our society. But a century has passed, more than a hundred years since the Negro was freed. And he is not fully free tonight.
　　It was more than a hundred years ago that Abraham Lincoln, a great President of another party, signed the Emancipation Proclamation。 but emancipation is a proclamation, and not a fact. A century has passed, more than a hundred years, since equality was promised. And yet the Negro is not equal. A century has passed since the day of promise. And the promise is unkept.
　　The time of justice has now e. I tell you that I believe sincerely that no force can hold it back. It is right in the eyes of man and God that it should e. And when it does, I think that day will brighten the lives of every American. For Negroes are not the only victims. How many white children have gone uneducated? How many white families have lived in stark poverty? How many white lives have been scarred by fear, because weamp。39。ve wasted our energy and our substance to maintain the barriers of hatred and terror?
　　And so I say to all of you here, and to all in the nation tonight, that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future.
　　This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all, all black and white, all North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. Theyamp。39。re our enemies, not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too poverty, disease, and ignorance: we shall overe.
　　Now let none of us in any section look with prideful righteousness on the troubles in another section, or the problems of our neighbors. Thereamp。39。s really no part of America where the promise of equality has been fully kept. In Buffalo as well as in Birmingham, in Philadelphia as well as Selma, Americans are struggling for the fruits of freedom. This is one nation. What happens in Selma or in Cincinnati is a matter of legitimate concern to every American. But let each of us look within our own hearts and our own munities, and let each of us put our shoulder to the wheel to root out injustice wherever it exists.
　　As we meet here in this peaceful, historic chamber tonight, men from the South, some of whom were at Iwo Jima, men from the North who have carried Old Glory to far cor