【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 ope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
　　This will be the day when all of Godamp。39。s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, amp。quot。My country, amp。39。tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrimamp。39。s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.amp。quot。
　　And if America is to be a great nation this must bee true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
　　Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
　　Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!
　　But not only that。 let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
　　Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
　　Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
　　When we let 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 Godamp。39。s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, amp。quot。Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!amp。quot。Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand 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 e here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
　　In a sense we have e to our nationamp。39。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.
　　It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has e back marked amp。quot。insufficient funds.amp。quot。 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 na