"I've Been to the Mountaintop" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK at Mason Temple, April 3, 1968Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this speech in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 — the day before he was assassinated. License to reproduce this speech granted by Intellectual Properties Management, 1579-F Monroe Bulldoze, Suite 235, Atlanta, Georgia 30324, as manager for the King Estate. Write to IPM re: copyright permission for use of words and images of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It'due south always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good about y'all. And Ralph is the best friend that I have in the world.

I'yard delighted to run into each of you hither this night in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to get on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our earth.

Every bit you know, if I were standing at the beginning of fourth dimension, with the possibility of general and panoramic view of the whole human history up to now, and the Omnipotent said to me, "Martin Luther King, which historic period would you lot like to live in?" — I would have my mental flying by Egypt through, or rather beyond the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised country. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there. I would motility on by Hellenic republic, and take my listen to Mount Olympus. And I would run across Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed the swell and eternal issues of reality.

But I wouldn't stop at that place. I would keep, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn't stop there. I would fifty-fifty 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. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even get by the mode that the man for whom I'm named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church building in Wittenberg.

But I wouldn't stop in that location. I would come up on up even to 1863, and sentinel a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Merely I wouldn't stop at that place. I would fifty-fifty come up up to the early thirties, and run into a human grappling with the issues of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent weep that we take zip to fear but fear itself.

But I wouldn't stop in that location. Strangely plenty, I would plow to the Almighty, and say, "If you lot allow me to live just a few years in the 2nd one-half of the twentieth century, I will exist happy." Now that's a foreign statement to make, considering the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Problem is in the land. Defoliation all around. That's a foreign statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is night plenty, tin can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a away that men, in some foreign style, are responding — something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising upwardly. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York Metropolis; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee — the cry is always the same — "We desire to be costless."

And another reason that I'm happy to live in this flow is that we take been forced to a indicate where nosotros're going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demand didn't forcefulness them to do it. Survival demands that nosotros grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking virtually war and peace. Merely at present, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a pick between violence and nonviolence in this world; it'due south nonviolence or nonexistence.

That is where nosotros are today. 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 earth is doomed. Now, I'thousand but happy that God has allowed me to alive in this period, to run across what is unfolding. And I'thousand happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis.

I can recall, I tin remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, and so often, scratching where they didn't itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. Just that mean solar day is all over. We hateful business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God's world.

And that's all this whole affair is about. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. Nosotros are saying that nosotros are adamant to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God'south children. And that we don't have to live like nosotros are forced to live.

At present, what does all of this mean in this neat period of history? It means that we've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and maintain unity. Y'all know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting amongst themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's courtroom, and he cannot concur the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. At present let u.s. maintain unity.

Secondly, let us proceed the issues where they are. The upshot is injustice. The upshot is the refusal of Memphis to be off-white and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, nosotros've got to keep attention on that. That'due south e'er the problem with a trivial violence. You know what happened the other solar day, and the printing dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that ane one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that Memphis is not existence fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a physician. They didn't get around to that.

Now we're going to march again, and nosotros've got to march again, in order to put the outcome where information technology is supposed to exist. And force everybody to run into that at that place are xiii hundred of God'south children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That'south the issue. And we've got to say to the nation: nosotros know information technology's coming out. For when people go caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.

We aren't going to allow any mace stop u.s.a.. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police force forces; they don't know what to practise, I've seen them then often. I retrieve in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that regal struggle there we would movement out of the 16th Street Baptist Church 24-hour interval later day; by the hundreds nosotros would movement out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth and they did come; but we only went before the dogs singing, "Own't gonna permit nobody plow me round." Bull Connor next would say, "Turn the burn hoses on." And every bit I said to you the other nighttime, Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't chronicle to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no h2o could put out. And nosotros 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, but we knew h2o.

That couldn't terminate us. And we only went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we'd proceed before the h2o hoses and we would await at it, and we'd but keep singing "Over my head I see freedom in the air." And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a tin can. And they would throw us in, and one-time Bull would say, "Take them off," and they did; and nosotros would merely go in the paddy wagon singing, "We Shall Overcome." And every now and then we'd arrive the jail, and nosotros'd run into the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And at that place was a power there which Bull Connor couldn't adjust to; and then nosotros concluded up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham.

Now nosotros've got to become on to Memphis simply similar that. I call upon you to be with the states Monday. Now about injunctions: We accept an injunction and we're going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, "Be true to what yous said on paper." If I lived in Prc or even Russia, or whatever totalitarian country, maybe I could sympathize the deprival 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 liberty of spoken communication. Somewhere I read of the liberty of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the correct to protest for right. And so just as I say, nosotros aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. Nosotros are going on.

Nosotros need all of you. And you know what'southward cute tome, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. Information technology'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 similar a mighty stream." Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, considering he 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'southward been to jail for struggling; but he's still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Rev. Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could only become right on down the list, only fourth dimension will not permit. But I want to thank them all. And I want you lot to give thanks them, because so often, preachers aren't concerned nearly anything but themselves. And I'chiliad always happy to see a relevant ministry.

Information technology'due south all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people desire some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. Information technology's all correct to talk nigh "streets flowing with milk and beloved," simply God has commanded us to exist concerned nigh the slums downwards here, and his children who tin't eat iii square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but 1 day, God's preachers must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to exercise.

Now the other thing we'll have to do is this: Ever ballast our external directly activeness with the ability of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people, individually, we are poor when you lot compare usa with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively, that ways all of united states together, collectively nosotros are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever recollect virtually that? Later on you get out the U.s.a., Soviet Russian federation, Cracking Britain, Due west Germany, France, and I could name the others, the Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a twelvemonth, which is more than all of the exports of the Us, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool information technology.

We don't take to debate with anybody. We don't have to expletive and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles, we don't need any Molotov cocktails, we just need to become around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us past hither, to say to you that yous're not treating his children correct. And nosotros've come past here to ask you to make the get-go item on your calendar fair handling, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an calendar that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economical support from you."

Then, equally a issue of this, we are asking you lot tonight, to become out and tell your neighbors not to purchase Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go past and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy—what is the other staff of life?—Wonder Staff of life. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them non to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, upwardly to at present, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they tin can begin the process of saying, they are going to back up the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And and so they tin can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is correct.

Merely not but that, nosotros've got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you lot to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank—nosotros desire a "banking concern-in" movement in Memphis. So go past the savings and loan association. I'm not asking you lot something nosotros don't practise ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others volition tell you that nosotros have an account here in the savings and loan clan 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. Nosotros want to have an "insurance-in."

Now these are some applied things we can practise. We begin the process of building a greater economical base of operations. And at the same fourth dimension, we are putting force per unit area where it really hurts. I enquire you to follow through here.

Now, let me say as I motility to my conclusion that nosotros've got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point, in Memphis. We've got to see it through. And when we have our march, you demand to exist at that place. Be concerned about your blood brother. You may not be on strike. Just either we get upwards together, or we get down together.

Allow us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. I day a man came to Jesus; and he wanted to raise some questions virtually some vital matters in life. At points, he wanted to trick Jesus, and evidence him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew, and through this, throw him off base of operations. Now that question could have easily ended upwards in a philosophical and theological debate. Only Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a unsafe curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain homo, who roughshod among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn't stop to assistance him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. Just with him, administering get-go aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the skillful human being, this was the great homo, because he had the chapters to project the "I" into the "thousand," and to be concerned about his brother. At present you know, nosotros use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn't stop. At times nosotros say they were busy going to church meetings—an ecclesiastical gathering—and they had to get on downward to Jerusalem and then they wouldn't exist late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that "One who was engaged in religious ceremonials was non to touch a human body xx-four hours earlier the ceremony." And every now and then we brainstorm to wonder whether mayhap they were not going down to Jerusalem, or downwardly to Jericho, rather to organize a "Jericho Road Improvement Clan." That'southward a possibility. Maybe they felt that information technology was meliorate to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effort.

Simply I'chiliad going to tell you lot what my imagination tells me. It'southward possible that these men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. Male monarch and I were starting time in Jerusalem. We rented a motorcar and drove from Jerusalem downwards to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, "I can run into why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable." Information technology's a winding, meandering road. It'southward really conducive for ambushing. You first out in Jerusalem, which is almost 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, xv or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to exist known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or information technology'southward possible that they felt that the man on the footing was merely faking. And he was acting similar he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I cease to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Proficient Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

That'southward the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what volition happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every twenty-four hours and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to assist this man in need, what will happen to me?" "If I do non stop to aid the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That'south the question.

Allow the states rise upward tonight with a greater readiness. Let united states stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to brand America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a improve nation. And I desire to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the commencement book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The but question I heard from her was, "Are you Martin Luther King?"

And I was looking down writing, and I said yeah. 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 Infirmary. Information technology was a dark Sabbatum afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, yous drown in your own blood—that'due south the finish of yous.

Information technology came out in the New York Times the next morning time, that if I had sneezed, I would take died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, afterwards the performance, subsequently my chest had been opened, and the bract had been taken out, to move effectually in the cycle chair in the hospital. They immune me to read some of the postal service that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind messages came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received i from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a 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 footling girl, a immature girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply, "Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade educatee at the White Plains High School." She said, "While it should non 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 yous had sneezed, you would take died. And I'1000 simply writing you to say that I'm then 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. Considering if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been effectually here in 1960, when students all over the Southward started sitting-in at tiffin counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the all-time in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of republic which were dug deep past the Founding Fathers in the Proclamation 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 information technology is aptitude. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been hither in 1963, when the blackness people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Ceremonious Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a gamble after that year, in Baronial, to attempt to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, been in Memphis to see the community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'one thousand 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 time, and equally we got started on the plane, there were six of usa, the pilot said over the public accost organisation, "We are sorry for the delay, but we accept Dr. Martin Luther King on the aeroplane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be incorrect with the aeroplane, nosotros had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

Then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen at present. We've got some hard days alee. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't listen. Like everyone, I would like to alive a long life. Longevity has its place. Merely I'm not concerned about that now. I but want to practise God's volition. And He'south allowed me to become up to the mount. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with y'all. Only I want y'all to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'chiliad not fearing whatever man. Mine eyes have seen the celebrity of the coming of the Lord.