We are confronted primarily with a moral issue.
It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.
The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities,
whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.
If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public,
if he cannot send his children to the best public school available,
if he cannot vote for the public officials who will represent him,
if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want,
then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?
Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?
One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free.
They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice.
They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression.
And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.
We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home,
but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly,
to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes;
that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes;
that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes?
The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or State or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them.
The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city,
North and South, where legal remedies are not at hand.
Redress is sought in the streets, in demonstrations, parades, and protests which create tensions and threaten violence and threaten lives.
We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and a people.
It cannot be met by repressive police action.
It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets.
It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk.
It is a time to act in the Congress, in your State and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives.
编辑于2023/12/22更新