I’m happy to join with you today in what go down in history as the greatest demonstrations for in the history of our nation.
Five score years , a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. came as a joyous daybreak to end the long of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must the tragic fact that the Negro is still not . One hundred years later, the life of the Negro still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro on a lonely island of poverty in the midst a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years , the Negro is still languishing in the corners of society and finds himself an exile in his own . So we have come here today to dramatize an condition.
In a sense we have come to our 's capital to cash a check. When the architects of republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note which every American was to fall heir. This note a promise that all men would be guaranteed the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

is obvious today that America has defaulted on this note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the people a bad check which has come back marked " funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of nation. So we have come to cash this check -- check that will give us upon demand the of freedom and the security of justice.