Can I Apply to Temple Again if I Didnt Get Into There
I've Been to the Mountaintop
delivered three Apr 1968, Bricklayer Temple (Church building of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee
[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed direct from audio]
Cheers very kindly, my friends. Every bit I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking near. It's always good to have your closest friend and acquaintance to say something good about y'all. And Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I accept in the earth. I'grand delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you lot are adamant to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the starting time of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of homo history upwardly to at present, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which historic period would you like to live in?" I would have my mental flying by Egypt and I would watch God's children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Arab republic of egypt through, or rather across the Crimson Body of water, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't end in that location.
I would move on by Greece and take my mind to Mountain Olympus. And I would encounter Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon. And I would picket them effectually the Parthenon as they discussed the smashing and eternal issues of reality. Simply I wouldn't stop there. I would continue, even to the smashing heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would meet developments around there, through diverse emperors and leaders. Just 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 aesthetic life of human. But I wouldn't terminate there.
I would even go by the way that the man for whom I am named had his habitat. And I would scout Martin Luther every bit he tacked his ninety-v theses on the door at the church of Wittenberg. But I wouldn't end there.
I would come on upwards 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 Announcement. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the bug of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent weep that
Strangely enough, I would plough to the Omnipotent, and say, "If you allow me to alive just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will exist happy."
Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the country; defoliation all around. That'south a foreign statement. Merely I know, somehow, that but when information technology is dark enough can you run across the stars. And I meet God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some foreign fashion, are responding.
Something is happening in our earth. The masses of people are rising upwards. 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 weep is always the aforementioned: "We want to be free."
And another reason that I'1000 happy to alive in this catamenia is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, just the demands didn't strength them to practice it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, accept been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer tin can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice betwixt violence and nonviolence in this earth; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today. And also in the man rights revolution, if something isn't done, and washed in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and fail, the whole world is doomed. Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this menses to run across what is unfolding. And I'k happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis.
I can recall -- I can recall when Negroes were just going around equally Ralph has said, and so ofttimes, scratching where they didn't itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We hateful business now, and nosotros are determined to gain our rightful place in God's world. And that'southward all this whole thing is about. We aren't engaged in whatsoever negative protest and in any negative arguments with everyone. We are maxim that we are determined to be men. We are determined to exist people. We are saying -- We are saying that we are God'south children. And that we are God's children, we don't take to live like nosotros are forced to alive. Now, what does all of this mean in this great menstruation of history? It means that we've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and maintain unity. You 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 among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh'south court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let u.s.a. maintain unity. Secondly, allow us go along the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue 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, we've got to go on attention on that. That'southward always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other 24-hour interval, and the printing dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got effectually to mentioning the fact that one yard, iii hundred sanitation workers are on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire demand of a dr.. They didn't get effectually to that. Now we're going to march again, and we've got to march again, in social club to put the result where information technology is supposed to be -- and force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God's children hither suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through night and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That's the result. And we've got to say to the nation: We know how it'due south coming out. For when people get caught upwardly with that which is right and they are willing to cede for it, there is no stopping point curt of victory.
Nosotros aren't going to let whatsoever mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police force forces; they don't know what to practice. I've seen them so oft. I recall in Birmingham, Alabama, when nosotros were in that regal struggle there, we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church building twenty-four hour period afterwards day; past the hundreds nosotros would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs along, and they did come up; just we but went before the dogs singing, "Ain't gonna let nobody plough me effectually."
Balderdash Connor next would say, "Turn the burn down hoses on." And equally I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the transphysics that nosotros knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denominations, we had been immersed. If nosotros were Methodist, and some others, nosotros had been sprinkled, but we knew water. That couldn't stop us.
And nosotros but went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we'd go on before the water hoses and nosotros would look at it, and nosotros'd only keep singing "Over my head I see liberty in the air." Then nosotros would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw u.s. in, and erstwhile Balderdash would say, "Take 'em off," and they did; and we would simply go in the paddy wagon singing, "Nosotros Shall Overcome." And every at present and then nosotros'd go in jail, and nosotros'd see the jailers looking through the windows beingness moved past our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power in that location which Bull Connor couldn't adjust to; and then we ended upward transforming Bull into a steer, and nosotros won our struggle in Birmingham. Now we've got to get on in Memphis simply like that. I phone call upon you to be with us when nosotros become out Monday.
Now about injunctions: Nosotros accept an injunction and nosotros're going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, "Be true to what you lot said on newspaper." If I lived in Red china or even Russian federation, or whatsoever totalitarian country, perhaps I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Subpoena privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over in that location. But somewhere I read of the liberty of associates. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. one And so but as I say, we aren't going to permit dogs or water hoses turn u.s.a. effectually, we aren't going to let any injunction turn the states around. We are going on. Nosotros need all of you. And you know what'southward beautiful to me is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It'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 accept a kind of burn down close up in his bones. And whenever injustice is around he tell it. Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and saith, "When God speaks who can only prophesy?" Once more with Amos, "Let justice curlicue down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow the preacher must say with Jesus, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me," and he's 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'south been to jail for struggling; he's been kicked out of Vanderbilt University for this struggle, but he's still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Reverend Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could merely go correct on down the list, but fourth dimension volition not let. Only I want to thank all of them. And I desire yous to thank them, because so oftentimes, preachers aren't concerned about anything but themselves. And I'thousand always happy to see a relevant ministry.
Information technology's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. Simply ultimately people desire some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," only God has commanded us to exist concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat iii square meals a day. It'due south all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one 24-hour interval, God's preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we accept to do.
Now the other thing nosotros'll have to practise is this: Always anchor our external straight action with the ability of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. Nosotros are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively -- that means all of united states of america together -- collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever remember about that? Subsequently y'all leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great britain, West Deutschland, French republic, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than almost nations of the earth. We accept an annual income of more thirty billion dollars a twelvemonth, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it.
Nosotros don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't demand any bricks and bottles. We don't need whatsoever Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say,
"God sent us by here, to say to you that y'all're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to inquire you to make the first item on your calendar off-white treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are non prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our calendar calls for withdrawing economical support from you."
And and so, as a upshot of this, nosotros are asking you lot tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Become by and tell them not to purchase Sealtest milk. Tell them non to buy -- what is the other bread? -- Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's staff of life. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, just the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the hurting. We are choosing these companies because they oasis't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can brainstorm the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And and so they can move on town -- downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to practice what is right.
But not only that, we've got to strengthen black institutions. I telephone call upon you to take your coin out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Depository financial institution. Nosotros desire a "banking concern-in" movement in Memphis. Get past the savings and loan association. I'yard not asking you something that nosotros don't practice ourselves at SCLC. Gauge Hooks and others will tell yous that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you lot to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven blackness insurance companies here in the metropolis of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We desire to have an "insurance-in."
At present these are some practical things that we tin can practice. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where information technology really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.
Now, permit me say as I movement to my conclusion that we've got to requite ourselves to this struggle until the end. Zip would exist more tragic than to cease at this point in Memphis. We've got to see it through. And when we accept our march, you demand to be there. If it means leaving work, if information technology means leaving schoolhouse -- be there. Be concerned near your blood brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go upward together, or we go down together. Let usa develop a kind of unsafe unselfishness. One twenty-four hours a man came to Jesus, and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. At points he wanted to play a joke on Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew and throw him off base....
Now that question could have easily ended upward in a philosophical and theological fence. Simply Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous bend between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who barbarous amongst thieves. You think that a Levite and a priest passed past on the other side. They didn't stop to assist him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his animate being, decided not to be empathetic past proxy. Just he got downward with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the chapters to project the "I" into the "thousand," and to exist concerned about his blood brother.
Now you know, nosotros use our imagination a peachy deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn't cease. At times we say they were busy going to a church coming together, an ecclesiastical gathering, and they had to go on downwardly to Jerusalem and so they wouldn't be tardily for their coming together. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious police force that "1 who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to bear on a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony." And every now and then we begin to wonder whether mayhap they were not going down to Jerusalem -- or down to Jericho, rather to organize a "Jericho Road Improvement Association." That's a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to go bogged down with an individual event.
But I'm going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It'due south possible that those men were afraid. You come across, the Jericho route is a dangerous road. I call back when Mrs. Rex and I were get-go in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem downwards to Jericho. And as soon every bit we got on that road, I said to my married woman, "I can see why Jesus used this every bit the setting for his parable." Information technology's a winding, meandering road. Information technology's really conducive for ambushing. You lot start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles -- or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you go down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes subsequently, y'all're about 2200 feet beneath bounding main level. That's a dangerous route. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Encarmine 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 all the same effectually. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and injure, in lodge to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and piece of cake seizure. And then the first question that the priest asked -- the start question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" Just then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I exercise not finish to aid this homo, what volition happen to him?"
That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, "If I finish to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I commonly spend in my part every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to assist this man in need, what will happen to me?" The question is, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what volition happen to them?" That's the question. Let us ascent up tonight with a greater readiness. Allow us stand with a greater determination. And permit us move on in these powerful days, these days of claiming to make America what it ought to be. We accept an opportunity to brand America a ameliorate nation. And I desire to thank God, once more than, for allowing me to be here with you.
You know, several years ago, I was in New York Metropolis autographing the outset book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented blackness woman came up. The only 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 breast. Before I knew information technology I had been stabbed by this demented adult female. I was rushed to Harlem Infirmary. It was a dark Sat afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the bract was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, your drowned in your ain blood -- that's the end of you lot. It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had merely sneezed, I would take died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the performance, subsequently my chest had been opened, and the bract had been taken out, to move around in the cycle chair in the hospital. They immune me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the globe, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I volition never forget. I had received one 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 that letter of the alphabet said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a pupil at the White Plains Loftier School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. Information technology said simply,
"Dear Dr. Male monarch,
I am a ninth-class student at the White Plains High School."
And she said,
"While it should not matter, I would similar to mention that I'm a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, yous would take died. And I'thousand simply writing you lot to say that I'thousand so happy that you didn't sneeze."
And I want to say tonight -- I want to say this night that I too am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at tiffin counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream, and taking the whole nation dorsum to those great wells of republic which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't take been effectually here in 1961, when nosotros decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in inter-state travel.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around hither in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs upward, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is aptitude.
If I had sneezed -- If I had sneezed I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, angry the censor of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't take had a chance later that year, in Baronial, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been downwards in Selma, Alabama, to see the not bad Movement there.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally effectually those brothers and sisters who are suffering.
I'k so happy that I didn't sneeze.
And they were telling me --. Now, it doesn't affair, now. Information technology actually doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this forenoon, and every bit we got started on the plane, there were half-dozen of us. The airplane pilot said over the public accost organization, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to exist sure that all of the numberless were checked, and to exist sure that nothing would exist wrong with on the plane, we had to cheque out everything carefully. And nosotros've had the plane protected and guarded all night." And and then I got into 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 now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it actually doesn't matter with me at present, because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't listen.
Like everyone, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its identify. But I'g not concerned almost that at present. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not go at that place with yous. Only I want you to know this evening, that we, as a people, volition get to the promised land!
And so I'm happy, this night.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!
Book/CDs by Michael E. Eidenmuller, Published by McGraw-Hill (2008)
1 Some transcripts represent this textual moment as "rights" instead of "correct". Four related possibilities, each with two conditions. Reverend King: i) stated "right" but meant "rights" 2) stated and meant "correct" three) stated "rights" only meant "right"; stated and meant "rights". Available audio and sound/video is inconclusive on the first status of each possibility. Readers are encouraged to offer opinions/clarifications at: possessor@americanrhetoric.com. Cheers to S.R. Gilbert for bringing this matter to my attention.
Too in this database: Martin Luther King, Jr: "I Have a Dream"
Audio Source: Linked direct to the Net Archive
External Link : http://www.thekingcenter.org/
Page Updated: 5/3/21
U.S. Copyright Condition: Text and Images = Restricted, seek permission. Copyright inquiries and permission requests may be directed to: Intellectual Backdrop Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at licensing@i-p-m.com or 404 526-8968.
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