We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad cheque which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of colour are concerned. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a cheque. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.Īnd so we've come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. America has given the Negro people a bad cheque which has come back marked 'insufficient funds'īut 100 years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.
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