I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest

demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed

of the emancipation proclamation. This momentous decree came as a bread beacon light of hope

to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It

came as a joyous state break to end the long night of their captivity. But 100 years later,

the Negro still is not free. 100 years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled

by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 100 years later, the Negro

lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. 100

years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds

himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize the shameful

condition. In a sense, we've come to our nation capitals to catch a check. When the architects

of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,

they were signing a promise or a note, whichever the American was to fall out. This note was

a promise at all, man. Yes, black men as well as white men would be guaranteed the unanniable

rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has

disliked it on this promise or a note in so far as our citizens of color or concern. Instead

of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check. A check

which is from back marked in sufficient funds. But we refuse to believe that the bank

of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe the bad are insufficient funds in the great

cost of opportunity of this nation. So we've come to catch this check, a check that will

give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

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