Today I want to tell you that we are on the move and no wave of racism can stop us. The burning of our churches will not deter us. The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us. The beating and killing of our clergymen and young people will not divert us. Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom.
The battle is in our hands. And we can answer with creative nonviolence the call to higher ground to which the new directions of our struggle summon us. The road ahead is not altogether a smooth one. But we must keep going.
The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that recognizes the dignity and the worth of all of God’s children. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that allows judgement to run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy of brotherhood, the normalcy of true peace, the normalcy of justice.
Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.
I know you are asking today, “How long will it take?” I come to say to you, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth crushed to earth will rise again.
— Excerpts from Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech at Montgomery in 1965.
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