Selma Page #9

Rarely in any time

does an issue lay bare the secret heart

of America itself.

The issue for equal rights

for the American Negro

is that issue.

For this issue,

many of them were brutally assaulted.

There is no Negro problem.

There is no Southern problem.

There is only an American problem.

The Constitution says that

no person shall be kept from voting

because of his race or color.

To correct the denial

of this fundamental right,

this Wednesday,

I will send to Congress a law

designed to eliminate

these illegal barriers.

The bill will strike down

voting restrictions in all elections,

federal, state and local.

And we shall do this.

We shall overcome.

We believe we can cover you

through Lowndes County,

but once we add the final day's march

through Montgomery,

and you're passing through

all those tall buildings and whatnot,

coverage becomes challenging.

So please consider

driving in on the final leg.

And please consider nixing

the speech at the Capitol.

Well, if Wallace will see us

when we arrive,

there'll be no need for a speech.

Can you arrange that?

I can't hide.

We can't hide. You understand.

I don't want to see this go wrong for you.

Don't you want

to protect yourself, Doctor?

Let me try to do that.

You know, I know you want to live to see

the fruits of all this work. I know you do.

I'm just asking you to allow us

to help you do that.

I'm no different than anybody else.

I want to live long and be happy.

But I'll not be focusing

on what I want today.

I'm focused on what God wants.

We're here for a reason,

through many, many storms.

But, today, the sun is shining,

and I'm about to stand in its warmth

alongside a lot of freedom-loving people

who worked hard to get us here.

I may not be with them

for all the sunny days to come,

but as long as there

is light ahead for them,

it's worth it to me.

Thank you, John.

We heard them say

we'd never make it here.

We heard them say they'd stop us,

if it was the last thing they did.

We heard them say

we don't deserve to be here.

But today, we stand as Americans.

We are here,

and we ain't gonna let nobody

turn us around.

This mighty march,

which will be counted

as one of the greatest

demonstrations of protest and progress,

ends here in the Capitol of Alabama

for a vital purpose.

We have not fought only

for the right to sit where we please

and go to school where we please.

We do not only strive here today

to vote as we please.

But with our commitment,

we give birth each day to a new energy

that is stronger than

our strongest opposition.

And we embrace

this new energy so boldly,

embody it so fervently,

that its reflection illuminates

a great darkness.

Our society has distorted who we are.

From slavery to the Reconstruction

to the precipice at which we now stand,

we have seen powerful

white men rule the world

while offering poor white men

a vicious lie as placation.

And when the poor white man's children

wail with a hunger

that cannot be satisfied,

he feeds them that same vicious lie.

A lie whispering to them

that regardless of their lot in life,

they can at least be triumphant

in the knowledge

that their whiteness makes

them superior to blackness.

But we know the truth.

We know the truth, and we will

go forward to that truth, to freedom.

We will not be stopped.

We will march for our rights.

We will march to demand

treatment as full citizens.

We will march until the viciousness

and the darkness

gives way to the light of righteousness.

No man, no myth,

no malaise will stop this movement.

We forbid it.

For we know that it is this darkness

that murders the best in us

and the best of us.

Whether Jimmie Lee Jackson

or James Reeb,

or four blameless little girls

struck down

before they had even begun.

You may ask, when will we

be free of this darkness?

I say to you today,

my brothers and sisters,

despite the pain, despite the tears,

our freedom will soon be upon us.

For "truth crushed to earth

will rise again."

When will we be free?

Soon, and very soon.

Because you shall reap what you sow.

When will we be free?

Soon, and very soon.

Because no lie can live forever.

When will we be free?

Soon, and very soon

because "Mine eyes have seen

"the glory of the coming of the Lord.

"He is trampling out the vintage

"where the grapes of wrath are stored.

"He hath loosed the fateful lightning

"of his terrible swift sword.

"His truth is marching on.

"Glory! Hallelujah!

"His truth is marching on."

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