#One true king under the mountain license#

We are saying that we are God's children. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God's world.Īnd that's all this whole thing is about. 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. And I'm happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis. Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world it's nonviolence or nonexistence. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. Survival demands that we grapple with them. 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 - 'We want to be free.'Īnd another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we're going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demand didn't force them to do it. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a away that men, in some strange way, are responding - something is happening in our world. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. 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. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.īut I wouldn't stop there. I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg.īut I wouldn't stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for whom I'm named had his habitat. I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of man. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality.īut I wouldn't stop there. I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there. Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world.Īs 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 me, 'Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?' - I would take my mental flight by Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. I'm delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning.

And Ralph is the best friend that I have in the world. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good about you. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. Write to IPM re: copyright permission for use of words and images of Martin Luther King, Jr.

#One true king under the mountain license#

License to reproduce this speech granted by Intellectual Properties Management, 1579-F Monroe Drive, Suite 235, Atlanta, Georgia 30324, as manager for the King Estate. delivered this speech in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on Apthe day before he was assassinated.