1、Martin Luther King, Jr: “Ive Been to the Mountaintop“Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. Its always good to have your closest friend and associate to say som
2、ething good about you. And Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world. Im delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow.Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, i
3、f I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of 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 and I would watch
4、Gods children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldnt stop there.I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plat
5、o, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon. And I would watch them around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldnt stop there.I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments
6、 around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldnt stop there. 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 aesthetic life of man. But I wouldnt stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for
7、 whom Im named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg. But I wouldnt stop there.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
8、he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldnt 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. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but “fear itself.“ But I wouldnt stop there.Strange
9、ly 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 20th century, I will be happy.“ Now thats a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. Thats a s
10、trange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever th
11、ey 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.“And another reason that Im happy to live in this period is that we ha
12、ve been forced to a point where were going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didnt force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no lon
13、ger can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; its nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today.And also in the human rights revolution, if something isnt done, and done in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of
14、 their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, Im just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And Im happy that Hes allowed me to be in Memphis.*I can remember - I can remember when Negroes were just going
15、around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didnt itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in Gods world.And thats all this whole thing is about. We arent engaged in any negative prot
16、est and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are Gods children. And that we dont have to live like we are forced to live.Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means
17、that weve got to stay together. Weve 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 togeth
18、er, something happens in Pharaohs court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, thats the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be
19、 fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, weve got to keep attention on that. Thats always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They
20、 very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didnt get around to that.Now were going to march again, and weve got to march again, in
21、 order to put the issue where it is supposed to be - and force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of Gods children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. Thats the issue. And weve got to say to the nat
22、ion: we know its coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.We arent going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they dont know what
23、to do, Ive seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there, we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come; but we just
24、 went before the dogs singing, “Aint gonna let nobody turn me around.“ Bull Connor next would say, “Turn the fire hoses on.“ And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didnt know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didnt relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was
25、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 denomination, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water.That couldnt stop us
26、. And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and wed go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and wed just go on 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
27、a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, “Take them off,“ and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, “We Shall Overcome.“ And every now and then wed get in the jail, and wed see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved
28、by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldnt adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham.Now weve got to go on to Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us Monday. Now about injunctions: We have
29、an injunction and were going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, “Be true to what you said on paper.“ If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amen
30、dment privileges, because they hadnt committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. An
31、d so just as I say, we arent going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.We need all of you. And you know whats beautiful tome, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. Its a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people
32、 more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say, “Let justice roll 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 to deal with the problems of the poor.“And I
33、want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; hes been to jail for struggling; but hes still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Rev. Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could just go right on down the l
34、ist, but time will not permit. But I want to thank them all. And I want you to thank them, because so often, preachers arent concerned about anything but themselves. And Im always happy to see a relevant ministry.Its all right to talk about “long white robes over yonder,“ in all of its symbolism. Bu
35、t ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. Its all right to talk about “streets flowing with milk and honey,“ but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who cant eat three square meals a day. Its all right to talk about the
36、new Jerusalem, but one day, Gods 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 do. Now the other thing well have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economi
37、c withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively - that means all of us together - collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you
38、 ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, 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 year, which is more than all of
39、the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? Thats power right there, if we know how to pool it.We dont have to argue with anybody. We dont have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We dont need any bricks and bottles. We dont need an
40、y 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 youre not treating his children right. And weve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where Gods c
41、hildren are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.“And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by a
42、nd tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy - what is the other bread? - Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Harts bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the
43、 pain. We are choosing these companies because they havent been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Lo
44、eb to do what is right.But not only that, weve got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank - we want a “bank-in“ movement in Memphis. So go by the savings and loan association. Im not asking you something
45、 we dont do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Were just telling you to follow what were doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance compani
46、es in Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an “insurance-in.“Now these are some practical things we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.Now, let me s
47、ay as I move to my conclusion that weve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point, in Memphis. Weve got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike.
48、But either we go up together, or we go down together.Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus; and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters in life. At points, he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew, an
49、d through this, throw him off base. Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didnt stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compas
