MARTIN LUTHER KING IN HIS OWN WORDS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993                   TAG: 9304040288
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
MARTIN LUTHER KING IN HIS OWN WORDS
Excerpts from speeches and writings of Martin Luther King Jr.:
"We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land.
"I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm so happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."
- April 3, 1968, the night before his death in Memphis

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
"I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice . . . will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"
- August 28, 1963, address at the March on Washington for Civil Rights.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
- 1963 "Letter From a Birmingham Jail."

"Our enemies would prefer to deal with a small armed group rather than with a huge, unarmed but resolute mass of people . . . . Our powerful weapons are the voices, the feet, and the bodies of dedicated, united people, moving without rest toward a just goal."
- 1959 essay, arguing against calls for armed resistance by blacks.

"We must speed up the coming of the inevitable. Now it is true . . . that Old Man Segregation is on his deathbed. But history has proven that social systems have a great last-minute breathing power, and the guardians of a status quo are always on hand with their oxygen tents to keep the old order alive."
- 1957 address, "Facing the Challenge of a New Age."

"The attitude of many young Negroes a few years ago was reflected in a common expression, `I'd rather be a lamp post in Harlem than governor of Alabama.' Now the idea expressed in our churches, schools, pool rooms, restaurants and homes is: `Brother, stay here and fight non-violently. 'Cause if you don't let them get you mad, you can win.' "
- 1956 essay analyzing the bus boycott that desegregated the transit system in Montgomery, Ala., and helped launch the civil rights movement.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB