"I've Been to the Mountaintop" by Dr. Martin Luther Rex, Jr.

MLK at Mason Temple, April 3, 1968Dr. Martin Luther Rex, Jr. delivered this voice communication in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 — the day before he was assassinated. License to reproduce this speech granted by Intellectual Backdrop Management, 1579-F Monroe Bulldoze, Suite 235, Atlanta, Georgia 30324, as manager for the King Estate. Write to IPM re: copyright permission for use of words and images of Martin Luther Rex, Jr.

Thanks very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and and then thought most myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good to accept your closest friend and acquaintance say something skillful about you. And Ralph is the best friend that I have in the world.

I'm delighted to see each of you lot here tonight in spite of a storm alarm. You reveal that you are adamant to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world.

As you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of general and panoramic view of the whole human being history upwards to at present, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would y'all like to alive in?" — I would accept my mental flight by Egypt through, or rather beyond the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there. I would motion on past Greece, and have my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would run into Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed the peachy and eternal issues of reality.

But I wouldn't stop there. I would get on, fifty-fifty to the slap-up heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments effectually there, through diverse emperors and leaders. But I wouldn't end in that location. I would even come up to the twenty-four hour period of the Renaissance, and go a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of human being. Only I wouldn't stop in that location. I would even go past the way that the man for whom I'm named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg.

Simply I wouldn't cease there. I would come up on up fifty-fifty to 1863, and lookout a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come up to the decision that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Only I wouldn't stop there. I would fifty-fifty come up up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the issues of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come up with an eloquent weep that we have zip to fear but fear itself.

Only I wouldn't finish in that location. Strangely plenty, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, "If you let me to alive just a few years in the second one-half of the twentieth century, I will be happy." At present that's a strange statement to make, because the globe is all messed upwards. The nation is ill. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around. That's a strange argument. Simply I know, somehow, that just when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a away that men, in some foreign mode, are responding — something is happening in our earth. The masses of people are rise up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, S Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Republic of ghana; New York Urban center; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee — the cry is always the same — "We want to be free."

And another reason that I'thou happy to alive in this period is that nosotros accept been forced to a point where nosotros're going to have to grapple with the problems that men take been trying to grapple with through history, only the demand didn't strength them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, accept been talking about war and peace. Only now, no longer tin they just talk most it. It is no longer a option between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence.

That is where we are today. And as well in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of injure and neglect, the whole world is doomed. At present, I'm just happy that God has immune me to live in this menses, to see what is unfolding. And I'm happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis.

I can remember, I can remember when Negroes were simply going around equally Ralph has said, then often, scratching where they didn't itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are adamant to gain our rightful place in God'due south world.

And that'due south all this whole matter is nearly. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in whatsoever negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are maxim that we are God's children. And that nosotros don't have to live similar we are forced to live.

Now, what does all of this mean in this smashing menstruum of history? Information technology means that nosotros've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and maintain unity. Y'all know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the menses of slavery in Arab republic of egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves assemble, something happens in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. At present permit us maintain unity.

Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The effect is injustice. The outcome is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, nosotros've got to keep attending on that. That's e'er the problem with a piffling violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt simply with the window-breaking. I read the manufactures. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one yard, iii hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that Memphis is non being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doc. They didn't become around to that.

Now we're going to march again, and nosotros've got to march again, in order to put the outcome where it is supposed to be. And forcefulness everybody to run across that in that location are thirteen hundred of God's children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through nighttime and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That's the issue. And we've got to say to the nation: we know it's coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping bespeak brusque of victory.

We aren't going to let any mace end usa. Nosotros are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don't know what to do, I've seen them so oftentimes. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there nosotros would motion out of the 16th Street Baptist Church mean solar day after day; by the hundreds we would motion out. And Balderdash Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth and they did come; merely we simply went before the dogs singing, "Ain't gonna let nobody plow me round." Bull Connor next would say, "Turn the fire hoses on." And as I said to y'all the other night, Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that in that location was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; nosotros had known h2o. If we were Baptist or another denomination, we had been immersed. If nosotros were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew h2o.

That couldn't end us. And we but went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we'd go on earlier the water hoses and we would expect at it, and nosotros'd just go on singing "Over my caput I see freedom in the air." And and so nosotros would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw u.s. in, and sometime Balderdash would say, "Have them off," and they did; and nosotros would only get in the paddy carriage singing, "Nosotros Shall Overcome." And every now so we'd get in the jail, and we'd meet the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a ability there which Bull Connor couldn't adjust to; and so we ended upwardly transforming Bull into a steer, and nosotros won our struggle in Birmingham.

Now we've got to go on to Memphis just like that. I call upon y'all to be with us Monday. At present almost injunctions: Nosotros accept an injunction and we're going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, "Be true to what y'all said on paper." If I lived in Prc or even Russia, or whatsoever totalitarian land, perchance I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over at that place. Simply somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the printing. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for correct. And and then just every bit I say, we aren't going to allow any injunction turn us effectually. Nosotros are going on.

We need all of you. And yous know what's beautiful tome, is to run across all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous motion picture. Who is information technology that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say, "Let justice ringlet down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."

And I desire to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; he'southward been to jail for struggling; but he's notwithstanding going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Rev. Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could just become right on down the list, merely fourth dimension will not permit. But I want to thank them all. And I desire y'all to thank them, considering so often, preachers aren't concerned about anything only themselves. And I'm always happy to encounter a relevant ministry.

It's all correct to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wearable down hither. It'due south all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and dear," but God has allowable us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't swallow three square meals a day. It'south all correct to talk almost the new Jerusalem, but i day, God's preachers must talk almost the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

Now the other thing we'll have to practise is this: E'er ballast our external direct action with the ability of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people, individually, we are poor when y'all compare us with white guild in America. Nosotros are poor. Never cease and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you e'er think virtually that? Later you lot leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Keen Britain, West Deutschland, France, and I could name the others, the Negro collectively is richer than nearly nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the The states, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you lot know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don't have to debate with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need whatsoever bricks and bottles, we don't need whatever Molotov cocktails, nosotros just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our land, and say, "God sent u.s.a. by here, to say to you lot that you're not treating his children right. And we've come past hither to ask you lot to make the commencement item on your agenda off-white treatment, where God'due south children are concerned. Now, if yous are not prepared to practice that, we do accept an calendar that nosotros must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economical back up from you."

And so, as a issue of this, we are request you tonight, to get out and tell your neighbors non to purchase Coca-Cola in Memphis. Get past and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy—what is the other bread?—Wonder Bread. And what is the other breadstuff company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies considering they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the procedure of saying, they are going to back up the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they tin can movement on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

Just non but that, we've got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your coin in Tri-State Bank—nosotros want a "bank-in" movement in Memphis. So go by the savings and loan association. I'm not asking you something we don't practice ourselves at SCLC. Guess Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We're only telling you lot to follow what we're doing. Put your coin there. You have six or seven blackness insurance companies in Memphis. Take out your insurance there. Nosotros want to accept an "insurance-in."

At present these are some practical things nosotros can do. We begin the procedure of edifice a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting force per unit area where it really hurts. I ask you lot to follow through here.

At present, let me say every bit I move to my decision that we've got to requite ourselves to this struggle until the finish. Zero would be more tragic than to stop at this point, in Memphis. We've got to see it through. And when we take our march, you demand to be at that place. Be concerned about your brother. Y'all may non be on strike. Simply either nosotros go up together, or nosotros go down together.

Permit united states develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One twenty-four hour period a man came to Jesus; and he wanted to raise some questions almost some vital matters in life. At points, he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew, and through this, throw him off base. Now that question could have easily concluded up in a philosophical and theological contend. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous bend between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked near a certain man, who fell amidst thieves. You lot call up that a Levite and a priest passed past on the other side. They didn't stop to assistance him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got downwards from his animate being, decided non to be empathetic by proxy. But with him, administering get-go assist, and helped the human in need. Jesus ended up maxim, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the chapters to projection the "I" into the "g," and to exist concerned about his blood brother. Now you know, we utilize our imagination a keen deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn't stop. At times we say they were busy going to church meetings—an ecclesiastical gathering—and they had to get on downward to Jerusalem so they wouldn't exist late for their coming together. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that "One who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human being body twenty-four hour period before the ceremony." And every now and then we brainstorm to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem, or downward to Jericho, rather to organize a "Jericho Road Improvement Association." That's a possibility. Peradventure they felt that information technology was improve to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual attempt.

Only I'k going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It's possible that these men were afraid. You lot meet, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. Male monarch and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and collection from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as before long as nosotros got on that route, I said to my married woman, "I tin see why Jesus used this every bit a setting for his parable." It'south a winding, meandering route. It'south actually conducive for ambushing. You lot kickoff out in Jerusalem, which is near 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above ocean level. And by the time y'all get downwards to Jericho, fifteen or xx minutes later, yous're about 2200 feet below sea level. That'southward a unsafe road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were nevertheless effectually. Or information technology's possible that they felt that the homo on the basis was just faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in society to seize them over at that place, lure them at that place for quick and like shooting fish in a barrel seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I cease to help this man, what will happen to me?" Merely then the Adept Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do non stop to assist this man, what will happen to him?"

That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to assistance the sanitation workers, what volition happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to aid this man in need, what volition happen to me?" "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That'due south the question.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And allow the states motion on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to brand America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the kickoff book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The simply question I heard from her was, "Are y'all Martin Luther King?"

And I was looking downward writing, and I said yes. And the next infinitesimal I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Infirmary. It was a nighttime Saturday afternoon. And that bract had gone through, and the Ten-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And in one case that's punctured, yous drown in your ain blood—that'due south the stop of yous.

It came out in the New York Times the next forenoon, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about 4 days later, they immune me, afterwards the performance, later my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move effectually in the wheel chair in the infirmary. They immune me to read some of the postal service that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but i of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, simply I've forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a piffling girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that alphabetic character, and I'll never forget it. It said simply, "Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade educatee at the White Plains High School." She said, "While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the newspaper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if yous had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing y'all to say that I'm and then happy that yous didn't sneeze."

And I desire to say this evening, I want to say that I am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't accept been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at dejeuner counters. And I knew that equally they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the all-time in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Announcement of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs upward. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a human being can't ride your back unless it is aptitude. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into beingness the Ceremonious Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't take had a take a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America well-nigh a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't accept been downwardly in Selma, Alabama, been in Memphis to see the customs rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'grand so happy that I didn't sneeze.

And they were telling me, at present information technology doesn't matter now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the airplane, there were 6 of united states of america, the pilot said over the public address system, "We are sad for the delay, just nosotros have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nix would exist wrong with the plane, we had to bank check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all dark."

And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. Nosotros've got some hard days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Similar everyone, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'yard not concerned nigh that now. I simply want to practise 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 state. I may non get at that place with you. But I want you to know this night, that we, every bit a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the celebrity of the coming of the Lord.