A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Carson Clayborne & Shepard Kris

Author:Carson, Clayborne & Shepard, Kris [Carson, Clayborne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: POL004000
ISBN: 9780759520080
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2001-01-15T08:00:00+00:00

ADDRESS AT THE

CONCLUSION OF THE SELMA

TO MONTGOMERY MARCH

My dear and abiding friend, Ralph Abernathy, and to all of the distinguished Americans seated here on the rostrum, my friends and coworkers of the state of Alabama, and to all of the freedom-loving people who have assembled here this afternoon from all over our nation and from all over the world: Last Sunday, more than eight thousand of us started on a mighty walk from Selma, Alabama. We have walked through desolate valleys and across the trying hills. We have walked on meandering highways and rested our bodies on rocky byways. Some of our faces are burned from the outpourings of the sweltering sun. Some have literally slept in the mud. We have been drenched by the rain. [Audience:] (Speak) Our bodies are tired, our feet are somewhat sore.

But today, as I stand before you and think back over that great march, I can say, as Sister Pollard said—a seventy-year-old Negro woman who lived in this community during the bus boycott—and one day, she was asked while walking if she didn’t want to ride. And when she answered, “No,” the person said, “Well, aren’t you tired?” With her ungrammatical profundity, she said, “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.” (Yes sir, All right) And in a real sense this afternoon, we can say that our feet are tired (Yes sir), but our souls are rested.

They told us we wouldn’t get here. There were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies (Well, Yes sir, Talk), but all the world today knows that we are here and we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama saying, “We ain’t goin’ let nobody turn us around.” (Yes sir, Speak) [Applause]

Now it is not an accident that one of the great marches of American history should terminate in Montgomery, Alabama. (Yes sir) Just ten years ago, in this very city, a new philosophy was born of the Negro struggle. Montgomery was the first city in the South in which the entire Negro community united and squarely faced its age-old oppressors. (Yes sir, Well) Out of this struggle, more than bus [de ]segregation was won; a new idea, more powerful than guns or clubs, was born. Negroes took it and carried it across the South in epic battles (Yes sir, Speak) that electrified the nation (Well) and the world.

Yet, strangely, the climactic conflicts always were fought and won on Alabama soil. After Montgomery’s, heroic confrontations loomed up in Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and elsewhere. But not until the colossus of segregation was challenged in Birmingham did the conscience of America begin to bleed. White America was profoundly aroused by Birmingham because it witnessed the whole community of Negroes facing terror and brutality with majestic scorn and heroic courage. And from the wells of this democratic spirit, the nation finally forced Congress (Well) to write legislation (Yes sir), in the hope that it would eradicate the stain of Birmingham.

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