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Quotes from 7 of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Most Notable Speeches

By: History.com Editors

Updated: January 19, 2024 | Original: January 6, 2022

Martin Luther King Jr . was one of the most influential figures of the American civil rights movement—and a gifted orator. His stirring speeches touched on everything from social and racial justice, to nonviolence, poverty, the Vietnam War and dismantling white supremacy. And while many have been inspired by his famous “I Have a Dream” speech , King tackled a wide range of themes and causes and inspired others to demand change.

Here are some examples of King's speeches, sermons and lectures, along with their messages.

1. 'Paul's Letter to American Christians'

On November 4, 1956, King delivered a sermon to the congregation of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama in the form of a fictional letter from the apostle Paul to American Christians of the 1950s. As the church’s pastor, King used this unconventional format to draw attention to the widening gap between the country’s moral and spiritual progress, and its scientific and technological development. He also took on the potential dangers of capitalism, and the destructive evil of segregation. King delivered this sermon again at a meeting of the Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations in Pittsburgh on June 3, 1958.

“I am afraid that many among you are more concerned about making a living than making a life. You are prone to judge the success of your profession by the index of your salary and the size of the wheelbase on your automobile, rather than the quality of your service to humanity. The misuse of Capitalism can also lead to tragic exploitation.”

2. 'I Have a Dream'

King gave his most famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963 to a crowd of more than 250,000 people. He had been making direct references to the American dream in speeches since 1960 , and, originally, this wasn’t going to be part of his speech that day in the nation’s capital.

“I started out reading the speech, and I read it down to a point … the audience response was wonderful that day … And all of a sudden this thing came to me that … I’d used many times before ... ‘I have a dream,’” King told Donald H. Smith in an interview on November 29, 1963. “And I just felt that I wanted to use it here … I used it, and at that point I just turned aside from the manuscript altogether. I didn’t come back to it.” 

The primary message he conveyed through both his list of dreams and the original speech was one calling for racial justice by way of ending segregation and discrimination.

“We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating 'For Whites Only.' We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

3. 'The Quest for Peace and Justice'

On December 11, 1964, King delivered a lecture in the auditorium of the University of Oslo after officially being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the day before. Speaking to an audience of Norwegian monarchs and politicians, as well as the Nobel Prize Committee, King's lecture was more academic than his usual speeches, while still touching on the same themes of racial justice, nonviolent resistance, and moral and spiritual development. He also made a case as to why economic inequality must be addressed and included in any path towards peace, referring to poverty as “one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life.”

"I am only too well aware of the human weaknesses and failures which exist, the doubts about the efficacy of nonviolence, and the open advocacy of violence by some. But I am still convinced that nonviolence is both the most practically sound and morally excellent way to grapple with the age-old problem of racial injustice."

4. 'Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence'

Although King had spoken about his opposition to the Vietnam War publicly since 1965, his “Beyond Vietnam” speech—delivered on April 4, 1967—is considered his first major public statement that centered on making a case against American involvement in the conflict.

Addressing a crowd of approximately 3,000 people in Riverside Church in New York City, King outlined seven reasons why he thought it was time that he, as a civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, needed to take a stance on the Vietnam War. These included the economic burdens of sending American troops to fight in Vietnam (which he said amounted to a “cruel manipulation of the poor”), and the ongoing violence against Vietnamese civilians caught in the crossfire. This ended up being one of King’s most controversial speeches .

“Perhaps a more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the Black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.”

5. 'The Other America'

Only 10 days after making his case against the Vietnam War, King took the stage at Stanford University on April 14, 1967 and delivered another one of his most iconic speeches to an audience of university faculty and students. In an effort to draw attention to the widening poverty gap and systemic social and economic inequality in the United States, he described “two Americas”: one of prosperity and the other of poverty. King also stressed that “racism is still alive in American society,” in both the North and South, and how every time the country appears to be taking a step towards racial justice, it's followed by multiple backwards steps.

"Our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.”

6. 'The Three Evils of Society'

On August 31, 1967, King delivered the keynote address at the National Conference on New Politics in Chicago to an audience of roughly 3,000 people . In his speech, he made the case that racism, excessive materialism and militarism are all forms of violence that exist in a vicious cycle, referring to them as the “three evils” of American society. Lasting nearly 45 minutes , King’s address discusses the existence of racism since the birth of the country, and calls on the government to end the war in Vietnam, and enact policies to alleviate poverty.

“For the good of America, it is necessary to refute the idea that the dominant ideology in our country, even today, is freedom and equality while racism is just an occasional departure from the norm on the part of a few bigoted extremists. Racism can well be that corrosive evil that will bring down the curtain on western civilization.”

7. 'I've Been to the Mountaintop'

King gave his final speech on April 3, 1968 at Mason Temple in Memphis, fewer than 24 hours before he was assassinated. Striking sanitation workers packed the church beyond capacity to see King on his third trip to Memphis in support of their cause in less than a month. In his address, he explains that if given the choice to live during any period of human history, he would have chosen the second-half of the 20th century because grappling with racial, social and economic injustices were a matter of survival. From there, he called on those in attendance to remain united in their fight against injustice without the use of violence.

“We'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 need to be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike, but either we go up together, or we go down together.”

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes and Speeches

A list of iconic martin luther king, jr. quotes, plus how to listen to his speeches and read his work..

In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s enduring legacy and powerful words, here is a list of some important speeches he made during his life. We’ve pulled some of our favorite quotes, but we urge you to read and watch them in their entirety to understand and appreciate the full depth of Dr. King’s radical work.

“Paul’s Letter to American Christians” (1956)

“Oh America, how often have you taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. If you are to be a truly Christian nation you must solve this problem…You can work within the framework of democracy to bring about a better distribution of wealth. You can use your powerful economic resources to wipe poverty from the face of the earth. God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty.”

Listen to the sermon below, or read the transcript here .

“I Have a Dream” (1963)

“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating for whites only. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Read the transcript and listen to the audio recording here.

“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963)

“You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.”

Read the full letter here , which Dr. King began drafting in the margins of a newspaper editorial while imprisoned.

Nobel Peace Prize Lecture (1964)

“Yet, in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”

Listen to the lecture below, or read the transcript here .

“Proud to be Maladjusted” (1966)

“There are some things in our society and some things in our world for which I am proud to be maladjusted. And I call upon all men of goodwill to be maladjusted to these things until the good society is realized. I must honestly say to you that I never intend to adjust myself to racial segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few, leave millions of God’s children smothering in an air-tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society.”

Watch a clip of the address below, and read the transcript here of the version of this speech delivered March 17, 1966 at Southern Methodist University.

“The Other America” (1967)

“I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.”

“The Three Evils of Society” (1967)

“And so the collision course is set. The people cry for freedom and the congress attempts to legislate repression. Millions, yes billions, are appropriated for mass murder; but the most meager pittance of foreign aid for international development is crushed in the surge of reaction. Unemployment rages at a major depression level in the black ghettos, but the bi-partisan response is an anti-riot bill rather than a serious poverty program.”

Learn more about the Three Evils of Poverty, Racism, and Militarism here and listen to the speech below.

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” (1967)

“If America’s soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read ‘Vietnam.’ It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that ‘America will be’ are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.”

Listen to the audio recording below, and read the transcript here .

“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” (1968)

“All we say to America is to be true to what you said on paper…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 rights. And so just as I say we aren’t going to let any dogs or water hoses turn us around, we aren’t going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on. We need all of you.”

Read and listen to Dr. King’s final speech here.

There are many more speeches and writings available and we encourage you to watch, listen to, and read them. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University is a great resource, as is The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

And in the true spirit of Dr. King, we hope you take time today and all days to serve your community and help people who need help. Only together can we achieve his dream.

24 thoughts on “ Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes and Speeches ”

Quote of jhon milton Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties

Hello, My name is Benoît from Central African Republic. Thank you very much for putting all King’s speeches online. It is very interesting but to find the full text is a bit difficult. Please, is it payable or not?

Hi Benoit, We do not have the whole text of most of King’s speeches, but you can find many of them here for free: http://www.mlkonline.net/speeches.html Thank you! -Ari Bachechi, Data Operations Coordinator

God is able all human being is equal & free in front of god

Food is nothing with out freedom

where’s the I Have A Dream speech?

Thank you for bringing the log in requirement to our attention. You can read and listen to the “I Have A Dream” speech on NPR’s website . The link in the blog has also been updated.

-Ari Bachechi, Assistant Director, Operations & Exhibits

The quoted thread from Proud to Maladjusted is not correct and per the video changes his words. Example: MLK said: I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. You all left out the word racial. Why?

He also said There are some things in our society and some things in our world for which I am proud to be maladjusted. You all switched his words to say nation. MLK quotes and messages have been tampered with & misquoted enough that I would expect a museum dedicated to writers to want to ensure the accuracy of his words.

Thank you for your comment. We did not switch his words per se, though we understand why it seems that way. This speech was given multiple times and the words would change slightly each time. The quote we first used was from a transcript of the speech delivered March 17, 1966 at SMU. However, that quote does not match the video we include in this post so we have now updated the post with the exact words from the video to avoid any further confusion.

We consider all writers’ original words important and take care to honor them, especially a man like Dr. King whose true legacy, as you said, has been misrepresented. So we appreciate your feedback and for bringing this discrepancy to our attention.

he made my people free he is a hero

Thank you so much for his information,We are getting there

I am looking for his famous speech May 1964 at the Republican Convention at the Cow Palace Daly City California

While we found some speech transcripts from that day, unfortunately I could not find a transcript of Dr. King’s speech. Hopefully someone will see this comment and be able to direct you to the appropriate archive!

Good luck, Ari Bachechi, Assistant Director, Operations & Exhibits

Thank you . I work at the Cow Palace and I think it’s crazy that I can’t find that speech anywhere. But I can feel it that I will find it somewhere some how. Positive thoughts always even in this crazy world. Have a great day and I will too.

I seriously, yet greatly appreciate this outlook of our nation’s historical viewpoint of racial discrimination. I wish that it gets place to an end as soon as possible. I appreciate your website for permitting students across our great country to comprehend the struggles we’ve faced for many years, until to this day. It’s a process of totally understanding that people deserve to remain treated as regular, humans throughout our neighborhoods. Without getting a type of understanding of the past, we won’t have the ability to move forward to correct the wrongdoings that’s gone unnoticed. I appreciate the many organizations, members of places that’ve taken action, as well as the great students across our progressive nation that want to make matters of discrimination, stereotyping, including racial profiling stopped. It’s uncalled for, unlawful, including inappropriate for the rest of our people to deal with. With that being said, I pray that the civil rights throughout many cities gets played out fairly. I pray that the top authorities stop the injustices everywhere. Thank you.

martin luther!

BLACK LIVES MATTER

That is cool

true stuff man!

BLACK LIVES DO MATTER

Nice kaltin I am with you!

For a while now, I’ve been trying to find a website where I might get the well-known speeches given by Dr. Martin Luther King. Finally, I landed here. Thanks, AWM for your great effort.

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Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the March on Washington. AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the March on Washington.

Monday marks Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Below is a transcript of his celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. NPR's Talk of the Nation aired the speech in 2010 — listen to that broadcast at the audio link above.

Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders gather before a rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington. National Archives/Hulton Archive via Getty Images hide caption

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.

Code Switch

The power of martin luther king jr.'s anger.

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men — yes, Black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

Martin Luther King is not your mascot

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

Civil rights protesters march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. Kurt Severin/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

Throughline

Bayard rustin: the man behind the march on washington (2021).

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: for whites only.

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

How The Voting Rights Act Came To Be And How It's Changed

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

People clap and sing along to a freedom song between speeches at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Express Newspapers via Getty Images hide caption

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

Nikole Hannah-Jones on the power of collective memory

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This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.

Correction Jan. 15, 2024

A previous version of this transcript included the line, "We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now." The correct wording is "We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now."