Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent. 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...that one day the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. To be a Negro in America is to hope against hope. He who is devoid of the power to forgive, is devoid of the power to love. The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. The limitations of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence rioting is not revolutionary, but reactionary, because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharthis…followed by a sense of futility. The Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt. The Negro will only be truly free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own being and signs with the pen and ink of assertive selfhood his own emancipation proclamation. |