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King’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech
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(AP Photo)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. displays his 1964 Nobel
Peace Prize medal in Oslo, Norway, December 10,
1964. The 35-year-old Dr. King was honored for pro
moting the principle of non-violence in the civil
rights movement.
Martin Luther Kings Accep
tance Speech, on the occasion of
the award of the Nobel Peace
Prize, Oslo, December 10,
1964.
Your Majesty, Your Royal
Highness, Mr. President,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gen
tlemen:
I accept the Nobel Prize for
Peace at a moment when 22
million Negroes of the United
States of America are engaged
in a creative battle to end the
long night of racial injustice. I
accept this award on behalf of
a civil rights movement which
is moving with determination
and a majestic scorn for risk
and danger to establish a reign
of freedom and a rule of jus
tice. I am mindful that only
yesterday in Birmingham,
Alabama, our children, crying
out for brotherhood, were
answered with fire hoses,
snarling dogs and even death. 1
am mindful that only yester
day in Philadelphia, Mississip
pi; young people seeking to
secure the right to vote were
brutalized and murdered. And
only yesterday more than 40
houses of worship in the State
“l just want to do God’s will. And he’s
allowed me to go to the mountain. And P’'ve
looked over, and I’ve seen the promised
land! 1 may not get there with you, but |
want you to know tonight that we as a peo
ple will get to the promised land.”
From an address given in Memphis the night before his assas
sination, April 3, 1968 .
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of Mississippi alone were
bombed or burned because
they offered a sanctuary to
those who would not accept
segregation. I am mindful that
debilitating and grinding
poverty afflicts my people and
chains them to the lowest rung
of the economic ladder.
Therefore, I must ask why
this prize is awarded to a
movement which is belea
guered and committed to
unrelenting struggle; to a
movement which has not won
the very peace and brother
hood which is the essence of
the Nobel Prize.
After contemplation, I con
clude that this award which I
receive on behalf of that move
ment is a profound recogni
tion that nonviolence is the
answer to the crucial political
and moral question of our
time —the need for man to
overcome oppression and vio
lence without resorting to vio
lence and oppression. Civiliza
tion and violence are antithet
ical concepts. Negroes of the
United States, following the
people of India, have demon
strated that nonviolence is not
AUGUSTA FOCUS
sterile passivity, but a powerful
moral force which makes for
social transformation. Sooner
or later all the people of the
world will have to discover a
way to live together in peace,
and thereby transform this
pending cosmic elegy into a
creative psalm of brotherhood,
If this is to be achieved, man
must evolve for all human
conflict a method which
rejects revenge, aggression and
retaliation. The foundation of
such a method is love.
The tortuous road which
has led from Montgomery,
Alabama, to Oslo bears wit
ness to this truth. This is a road
over which millions of
Negroes are traveling to find a
new sense of dignity. This
same road has opened for ail
Americans a new era of
progress and hope. It has led to
a new Civil Rights Bill, and it
will, I am convinced, be
widened and lengthened into
a super highway of justice as
Negro and white men in
increasing numbers create
alliances to overcome their
common problems.
I accept this award today
with an abiding faith in Amer
ica and an audacious faith in
the future of mankind. I refuse
to accept despair as the final
response to the ambiguities of
history. 1 refuse to accept the
idea that the “isness” of man’s
present nature makes him
morally incapable of reaching
up for the eternal “ought ness”
that forever confronts him. |
refuse to accept the idea that
man is mere flotsom and jet
som in the river of life unable
to influence the unfolding
events which surround him. |
refuse to accept the view that
mankind is so tragically bound
to the starless midnight of
racism and war that the bright
daybreak of peace and broth
erhood can never become a
reality.
I refuse to accept the cynical
notion that nation after nation
must spiral down a militaristic
stairway into the hell of ther
monuclear destruction. |
believe that unarmed truth
and unconditional love will
have the final word in reality.
This is why right temporarily
defeated is stronger than evil
triumphant. I believe that even
amid today’s motor bursts and
whining bullets, there is still
hope for a brighter tomorrow.
I believe that wounded justice,
lying prostrate on the blood
flowing streets of our nations,
can be lifted from this dust of
shame to reign supreme
among the children of men. |
have the audacity to believe
that peoples everywhere can
have three meals a day for their
bodies, education and culture
for their minds, and dignity,
equality and freedom for their
spirits. I believe that what self
centered men have torn down
men other-centered can build
up. I still believe that one day
mankind will bow before the
altars of God and be crowned
triumphant over war and
bloodshed, and nonviolent
redemptive good will pro
claimed the rule of the land.
“And the lion and the lamb
shall lie down together and
every man shall sit under his
own vine and fig tree and none
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shall be afraid.” I still believe
that we shall overcome!
This faith can give us
courage to face the uncertain
ties of the future. It will give
our tired feet new strength as
we continue our forward
stride toward the city of free
dom. When our days become
dreary with low-hovering
clouds and our nights become
darker than a thousand mid
nights, we will know that we
are living in the creative tur
moil of a genuine civilization
struggling to be born.
Today I come to Oslo as a
trustee, inspired and with
renewed dedication to
humanity. I accept this prize
on behalf of all men who love
peace and brotherhood. I say I
come as a trustee, for in the
depths of my hear! I am aware
that this prize is much more
than an honor to me personal
ly.
Every time I take a flight, I
am always mindful of the
many people who make a suc
cessful journey possible —the
known pilots and the
unknown ground crew.
So you honor the dedicated
pilots of our struggle who have
sat at the controls as the free
dom movement soared into
January 15, 2004
orbit. You honor, once again,
Chief Lutuli of South Africa,
whose struggles with and for
his people, are still met with
the most brutal expression of
mans inhumanity to man.
You honor the ground crew
without whose labor and sacri
fices the jet flights to freedom
could never have left the earth.
Most of these people will never
make the headline and their
names will not appear in
Whos Who. Yet when years
have rolled past and when the
blazing light of truth is focused
on this marvelous age in
which we live — men and
women will know and chil
dren will be taught that we
have a finer land, a better peo
ple, a more noble civilization —
because these humble children
of God were willing to suffer
for righteousness sake.
I think Alfred Nobel would
know what I mean when I say
that I accept this award in the
spirit of a curator of some pre
cious heirloom which he holds
in trust for its true owners - all
those to whom beauty is truth
and truth beauty — and in
whose eyes the beauty of gen
uine brotherhood and peace is
more precious than diamonds
or silver or gold.
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