The speeches, sermons and lectures of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are being broadcast today on WPFW (Pacifica Radio).
Strength to Love may be one of King’s most important works. I picked it up at the recommendation of a guy browsing, like me, in a Borders bookstore. I was looking in the religious section at the Buddhist shelves, then moving on to King’s work. This guy pulled Strength to Love from the shelf and told me Strength to Love was one of the most important books he’d ever read.
I encourage you to read the “I Have a Dream Speech” in its entirety.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.