Let Freedom Ring
Even though he never wore the uniform, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his life for our freedom. The revolution for freedom of which he was a part had values and aims much like the one we celebrate from 1776. My hope is that we may learn something on how to best win the fights we in as a nation face this July 4, 2014. For this column, I‘ll simply offer his words on the struggle for freedom from human oppression back then. The full speeches quoted in part here are available online via any search engine.
“. . . And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children. . . will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his “I Have a Dream” speech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs&feature=kp
“The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind. Somebody must have sense and somebody must have religion. I remember some years ago, my brother and I were driving from Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee. And for some reason the drivers that night were very discourteous or they were forgetting to dim their lights. . . And finally A.D. looked over at me and he said, 'I'm tired of this now, and the next car that comes by here and refuses to dim the lights, I'm going to refuse to dim mine.' I said, 'Wait a minute, don't do that. Somebody has to have some sense on this highway.' And I'm saying the same thing for us here in Birmingham. We are moving up a mighty highway toward the city of Freedom. There will be meandering points. There will be curves and difficult moments, and we will be tempted to retaliate with the same kind of force that the opposition will use. But I'm going to say to you, 'Wait a minute, Birmingham. Somebody's got to have some sense in Birmingham.'
—Martin Luther King, Jr., 3 May 1963. This quote and most of the remaining quoted here can be found at Most are available from: This and the remainder of the quotes from Dr. King can be found at http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/resources/article/king_quotes_on_war_and_peace/
“Most revolutions in the past have been based on hope and hate, with the rising expectations of the revolutionaries implemented by hate for the perpetrators of the unjust system in the old order. I think the different thing about the revolution that has taken place in our country (1776) is that it has maintained the hope element and at the same time it has added the dimension of love. Many people would disagree with me and say that love hasn't been there.
“. . . I would be the first to say that it is nonsense to urge oppressed people to love their violent oppressors in an affectionate sense. And I'm certainly not talking about that when I talk above love standing at the center of our struggle. I think it is necessary to see the meaning of love in higher terms. The Greek language has three words for love – . . . which is understanding, creative, redemptive good will for all . . ., an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. When one rises to love on this level, he loves a person who does the evil deed while hating the deed. I believe that in our best moments in this struggle we have tried to adhere to this. In some strange way we have been able to stand up in the face of our most violent opponents and say, in substance, we will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with our soul force.
“ . . . And one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and your conscience that we will win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory. This is our message in the non-violent movement when we are true to it. I think it is a powerful method and I still believe in it. I know that it will lead us into that new day. Not a day when we will seek to rise from a position of disadvantage to one of advantage, thereby subverting justice. Not a day when we will substitute one tyranny for another. We know that a doctrine of black supremacy is as evil as a doctrine of white supremacy. We know that God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men; but God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race. He is interested in the creation of a society where all men will live together as brothers and every man will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. With the non-violent method guiding us on, we can go on into that brighter day when justice will come.
—1966 Ware Lecture: Don't Sleep Through the Revolution, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. http://www.uua.org/ga/past/1966/ware/index.shtml
“We must find new ways to speak for (freedom). . . and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr., "Conscience and the Viet Nam War" in The Trumpet of Conscience (1968)
David Graber
graberdb@gmail.com
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