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One four five six seven eight nine Payne testing one pole three four five six seven. Ladies and gentleman My name is William Raul I'm known in Britain circles as a rock. And in other circles. Divulge my name it is really a great pleasure for me to be. To be the first speaker on a program as important as this one I had the extreme pleasure of being in Oslo with Dr King and they thought that the best way to pay me back was to ask me to get up here in front of you and say thank you believe me I am well paid I do thank them for giving me this honor and I do want to welcome my neighbors to the Somme. Floor I walked many a night cause when World War two broke out I kind of quit but they got me anyway we have some very wonderful it a dame of oil before the main programs fought and most of them have jobs to go to so we will have to do this and do it fast but you don't have to applaud fast you can applaud. And loud and nice and slow. Because these people are giving up their time to help the committee on our community salute to Dr Martin Luther King do a good job for Dr King and at the same time try to entertain you while you are with the presence of this great and noble man you know the young fellers in the business today they don't know too much about noble sessile and Billy roll. Because we were sort of like before that time but we know quite a bit about them and the young fellow and I'm going to introduce you now he is really a classical student and he's studying classical music but he also sings popular music is going to do a classical concert on February twenty eighth here in New York City at the Historical Society on seventy seventh Street in Central Park West so if you are around go and listen this young man because I'm sure that after you him tonight you will want to hear him again it's my pleasure to introduce Mr David Dunn from. Yeah. Hoohoo. Oh different. As we. Know. It would she. Doesn't need. You. Know. Who'd given her. When you walk. On. The. Earth. And of course all of us here wish you tremendous success and your career you have the factor you have the style and you have the voice. We have another young group of entertainers and I I am sure that you're going to enjoy but just settle back. And watch. The Iraq debate then change. What a Malaysian as. You like to a number four you call Ging Obama. A female. Driver. Very much. And over to my right the first ten rolls of this reserve section must be clad because those seats are for. People from the United Nations ladies and gentlemen who are sitting over to my extreme right and reserve section please Claire the first ten rows three now you see of course you know we want the world to know about this evening so the press is here television is here so give them some room to operate please. And now ladies and gentlemen for your own comfort and for your eyes sake if you are sitting behind this the stance that the press the television cameras are being set up on kindly move over to another section so that you will not have your view obstructed and you will not get angry with everybody and get angry with the press being a newspaperman I should I say an excellent paper man I know the worst thing and I rarely can do is I get mad with the press so let us all have a wonderful time and let us move where we can see if you can't see we are sorry but we have to let the world know what we're doing so naturally the press is the one through which we're through the medium through which we're going to do it as. We have yet to really. See what happened. At all Dolly. You know they would come on my bad boy started trying to say. We have with us this evening a gentleman. From Hollywood a gentleman from Broadway a gentleman from the television studios of our nation both Europe and Canada he is got the run off he's got a little gay guy and I want to go make that bread as we would say it but he's a very distinguished gentleman you probably had an opportunity to see him in Porgy and Bess you probably had an opportunity to see him and kill a mockingbird you might have had an opportunity to see him in the L. shaped room heavens above and if you missed all of those then you will have a chance to see him in the pawnbroker which is coming out with Rod Steiger a Columbia picture and if you miss that when you can see him in major done day a picture that will soon be out with Jolly Heston he is one of our handsome young stars I say young because Brock is proud of the same age I am course he probably won't admit it so for the girl Brock Peters. With. Nobody. Like. It's right. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen we don't have a working but I. Can get his. Medications. On this occasion Dr King. I'd like to give you a little bit of a favorite of mine. I went. Through a rule. You. Know what. I'm. I don't. But we have a very funny young man. I want to talk to God and plan to work or is going to do but the meantime just for a few laughs a very few because time's running out on us Mr scolding Michel they'd come and say the kind of thing that I wish I had said. Thank you Can everyone hear me. I was quite pleased when I was asked to perform on this function because I've always been a great admirer of Dr King's and I'll never forget the first time that I had the good fortune of seeing this young man was at the March on Washington how many you folks went to the March on Washington Yeah. Yeah I went down and I had a ball. We would tell me. Well we would have they had so many negroes in wasn't about twelve o'clock got just a shady then we were down there and the most the most inspiring part of this whole thing they said there was something like half a million people there I have I feel they were a lot more but the really big moment was when Dr King got up and gave his speech this was the inspiration of the whole March he got up and he said I have a dream. Come out of my. I'm free I never dreamed you know Roy Wilkins we don't say what you dream baby. But you know what really what really tickles me about this whole thing this racial problem now just to talk about the racial problem for a minute I can't understand how people can think the way they do do you know that this racial problem is actually driving people out of their minds people are actually going crazy over this racial problem it is Dr White folks they gone crazy cause they scared Negroes going to go Negroes they gone crazy cause they scared Negroes going take over you know. That's read to be a word. I don't worry about there's a lot of little a lot of little wrongs that we have to write love a little wrong like you take for instance. There are certain certain words and phrases that are used today like when I was coming over here when I was coming to look at an armory you know I was standing on the corner waiting for the Calle and white fella pass me you know he says oh a siren. See we all look alike so they figure we all got the same name you know their son of them I said what you want now these are no way at the train station I said you know my name was slam he said oh I just guessed I said Well guess where the hell the train station is. Trying to make me feel bad thing on the all right don't worry about it I don't worry about it people actually losing their mind you know you let the negroes keep advantage in the way we advance you let us keep making the moves that we're making you let Negroes keep moving you'd be surprised how many white folks on top as a colored. Fella walk up and say oh man you know I was call it all there was. Just trying to get in a position where I could help Bush you know so yeah I know you. Well I think on the other I just you know a lot of people say all you do is talk about the rage around but I'm very active in the movement I do I get out there and I picket and I make all the rallies and so what I just bought a very beautiful home very beautiful home out an exclusive white neighborhood out here in Creedmore and I knew you know when I was negotiating for the property I knew they didn't want me out there I knew it but I was doing this thing they call it blockbuster you know they're you know you're going to be there long we're going in and have it is there and I figured I was going to have some trouble when I first moved in you know this all while I was the only Negro and I figured I'd have some trouble so the first day I was they are burned my own cross you understand and I got me a white sheet and threw it over my head and got on load of bricks and ran out and threw him at the house here is their tent just broke a little window nothing laws you know just a little just a little No I knew how to program when you're in there but I didn't have I didn't have any trouble when I first moved in because the folks who lived on the left of me and the folks who lived on the right of me they were in Florida on their vacation city and they didn't know that the wife and I had bought the property so when they came back it was in the spring time and I was out cutting the lawn and trim in the hedge as you know and a fellow who lived on the left of me he and his wife were walking past my property say and he was talking to his wife he said Hey honey you know they still take it as plays nice and. Yaz I think we got some good neighbors this day yeah I think we go like these folks honey and he saw me over in the corner of the yard trim and HEDGES Yes there so I walked over to me said hey boy. Now I just got to pay in fifty two thousand dollars for a twelve thousand dollars house and he called me Abo I. And I looked him right good in his eyes and gave the man New York answer as a yes or. You set us a book what you get for keeping this property like this some told him I get to sleep with a lady and. I say when I get to hear you want to come over and do yours he said no no just stay off my head I moved out right after that I don't know. But everything gone be alright don't don't don't worry about it don't worry about afloat and you know people get so involved in these things and and it wants them mentally it really does you know like you hear P I don't know how anyone could be racially prejudiced really I don't understand how anybody could be racially prejudiced because we're all related everybody's The saying you hear people say I see if I still feel sorry for the Smiths but you know they're colored cause that doesn't affect me because I'm Jewish you know I was a Jew any number of negro reject you know that I am I say when I'm a tie in any number of POTO Reagan would judge. Everybody I just found out the other day what a pigmy was you know what a pygmy is that's a Compaq spook just a little feller you know the leg but I think I know I will stand on a corner the other day and I was talking about this affair and we got to talking about Negroes whom we would like to have for president and I feel that I'm all the negroes that I know Dr Martin Luther King would probably be my choice you know thank you and we would we were standing there talking you know and white fella walked up and got in a conversation and. He said oh what's this you're talking about I said well we were just talking about negroes being presidents of the United States he said who. He said wouldn't you say. I said we were talking about a Negro being president of the United States. Really he said Now tell the truth do you honestly believe that a Negro could be president of the United States. To be run against a poet a Reagan. A Thank you. And in that particular year be just my luck to be passing for Puerto Rican. Ladies and gentleman this is for the boy. A young charming talented singer. Now. With me. Let's. See. If. Thank you thank you very much thank you. You know ladies and gentlemen one thing about being a so-called massive ceremonies you have so many things to do that you can't remember any of them I understand that there's an end of a lazy P. attorney Eugene shop in the house if he is he supposed to call Mr George blotch or immediately is most important and if that was a publicist and you got a good publicist the man Mr Eugene shop attorney at law call Mr George lots of uses a man to get up and says who's driving a for a number six seventeen eighteen please move it go right out to let the motor running. Of course I think that the motors of the show is really very fine and the eight zero two boys need a break right now so we're going to ask them to relinquish the stand. And since we're running against time and the man that you came to see is on the scene with like the high you band to give us one good one of their good good numbers so noble if your boys will take a little smoke break after the high. And don't go away in a while because you know we've got one great singer and one great comedian left that's going to go on and do or so great deal here. Now this is a scene where you're supposed to have a master ceremony supposed to be able to tell you a lot of jokes because you're never supposed to have a dead Mike and I hope that my coworker which is and I was on our radio station on the GOTTA BE call community JOURNAL Well not throw a sign in front of my face or take it easy like roll slow Clara's get with the voice of Burlington is here and I and I have to take it slow. But I can't tell you any jokes the best thing I can tell you is that you have all the reasons in the world to be proud of the gentleman that you want him to night. You should a seen this man and. Great and humble you should have heard the accolades he paid to you but I'm sure that you'll hear about that later on and you are going to be proud of yourselves because he took each and every one of you with him. And he told the people of US law about you as they talked about him so I just sort of want to warm you up and give you an added reason to really give out with it and I think that's even better than trying to find a joke or hear but I do have one because I see his boys a pretty smile it has to do with a fellow who went down to Texas to make a speech. And he sat there and he was very nervous because the man in front of him late a forty five on the table and it was very difficult for him to make a speech but finally somebody Pulis called and says Don't worry about him he isn't going to shoot you he's going to shoot the man who invited you. So if you have to shoot anybody pick on the Cleveland Robinson he invited me. I had one fellas are you all together. These fellas get I want to ban Sam like they get paid by the hour. Ladies and gentleman. We just received a telegram. To me it's a very sad sort of a telegram because for once I know that the fellow who sent this telegram really meant it and he really couldn't be here it says regrettably Mr Cole will not be unable to join with you in paying tribute to Dr Martin Luther King Jr on December seventeenth he asked however that you convey his harness Congratulations to Dr King on this honorable and memorable occasion Charlotte Sullivan secretary to Nat King Cole. Now that's really something imagine. A boy from Sent math to South Carolina and you know all along I thought I was going to Philadelphia Pennsylvania but when I had to go to Oslo I had to get a passport so I said to my mother I says What about my birth certificate I need it because I need a passport so she went she got it for me so she handed it to me and it says really wrong. Matthew South Carolina I said What is this is that's where you were born. So I said How come you didn't tell me that I would want to see that map you just what you always tell about I want to be with one of the F.B.I. soon you want to be born of the light up as I never said anything. So you're looking at a map you boy if you don't know where it is between Columbia South Carolina and Orangeburg are you reading all those. Thank you aren't Bergen. OK. All yours. Ladies and gentlemen. I know you must feel but I wish that you would kindly thought of quiet down for the moment it's been a pleasure talking with you. But it's a greater pleasure for me to turn over these mike to a great friend of labor to a great friend of the civil rights movement. To a great friend of democracy. A gentleman who's known throughout this country for his achievements he is a commissioner of the Human Rights Commission is secretary treasurer of District sixty five and he own so many other titles that I would have to really take up too much of this evening to give them all to you so it's with a great deal of pride and pleasure that I introduced you at this time your friend and my friend your neighbor and my neighbor the honorable Cleveland Robinson of District sixty five and coordinator of this affair. Will be our. Right I saw the thing up on national plan to be led by a Miss Janet Brown off the face temple choir from. Your. Favorite for. The odd. Bird bring you. More blue. Moon. Mary Mary Mary. MARY. MARY. Her. Her. All right for move forward. We will all remain standing. For the indication which will be given. By the very Reverend. Jeremiah. Mo de Monye of the Kennedy Community Center Reverend Moonie or God our Father God of Justice and Law We give thanks for the opportunity our community has to pay tribute to Dr Martin Luther King we give thanks for his leadership let this Brando KASIAN teach us the lesson of the nobility of leadership the nobility of peace peace which is the tranquillity of order. Peace which is born in the Justice and the love of God and of God's people among themselves. Peace which must be constantly an everlasting leash struggled for. We pray tonight to bend the wills of the opponents of domestic peace we pray tonight to enlighten the minds of the ignorant and the unaware we pray the night to melt the heart. Of the hardened heartless we pray tonight that we may learn that the fatherhood of God. The justice of God the love of God must be part of every moment of every day of our lives may God bless Dr Martin Luther King Mrs King his mother and father and family may God bless us all that even gentleman and friend of the community. It is. My honor and my privilege to have had the opportunity of. Working with all the organizations of the community religious. Fraternal civic arrives and label for this evening event to do honor to this great man who means so much to us and to America and it is now my honor and privilege having brought you here to introduce to you the man who is the chairman of this evening event. We look upon him as being of the civil rights movement for indeed he is the dean of the civil rights movement throughout this land and the dean of the struggle for human dignity and human brotherhood internationally when I recall that my fiftieth birthday passed only last week and this great man had been on the soap boxes on the streets of the cities of the United States fighting for freedom and human dignity before I was born it is awesome to know and I tell you that he was just as strong fighting just as hard giving it every moment to the struggle for the betterment of human life for peace and for Brotherhood and for labor he has been the architect of many of the fine advantages in our country we all can remember way back. When the March on Washington was to have taken place in nineteen forty two but was stopped when executive order it or two came into effect that in sense of President Roosevelt A Philip Randolph was the man and in recent years marches in Washington column in a team with a history making march in Washington of nine hundred sixty three the founding of the Negro American labor council to combat racial discrimination and to bring about unity among all working people all can be put at the hands of this great men I have the honor and the privilege and the pleasure of working with a police and out over the years I have learned much from him and the community especially the community in which he lives Harlem has profited not from a flip rundown I now bring you our chairman our own A Philip Randolph. Thank you a mind good friend and coworker Cleveland Robinson Dr King Martin Luther King and his charming wife and panel of distinguished platform Jess and fellow citizens I want to add first going to write your late. Father Robinson who has served as coordinator of this splendid salute. To a great American a great statesman my leader a great prophet a great human being Dr Martin Luther King really good to pay homage to him we are passionately Paul the other fact that he received the Nobel Peace Prize award. Civilization's most exalted award. For service in the cause of mankind this award gives to the civil rights revolution global dimension and saw all of us are hugely appreciative of the great role that Dr King has played on his plane and giving to the great movement for freedom rational and social justice strength and force and integrity now as our. First speaker of our program I had the pleasure to present to you the Reverend William E. gardener president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Greater New York and presented a Dr gotten. Around his excellence a governor. Rockefeller distinguished citizens ladies and gentlemen. The Baptist Ministers Conference of Greater New York and Vicinity rejoices in the privilege of honoring Dr King. Who so well deserves theirs ovation. To say he has merited this honoring is the state inadequate laid the truths for he has been. The very embodiment. Of a great move made of freedom for all peoples he has not just given lip service and put in writing a set of ideas. But he has given himself dangerous made. That freedom should come to denied people. He has well made the point that every man has a right to his own humanity. And that no one should use property whatever wherever it ears to the prior no other of this God given right. To. Use a proper day in the spitter double love and goodwill. Makes adequate the existing supply our. History supports the state man. That no community visited by Martin Luther King Jr. Is the same today as it was before his entrance Montgomery of the cradle of the Confederacy was steeped in prejudice so long until her conscience seemed dead but today she moves as one coming out of a stupor. Martin Luther King Jr was there. Birmingham the city that try itself in having economic can stay those sufficiency shunted by he had a visit by him. Today that city of Birmingham he secretly rejoices that she can live how conscious have some positive expression Albany Georgia lost among little things well not too remote for his campaign. The heart of this little community cries out today for decency and brotherhood. America's first city boasting of its history and conservatism all but forgotten in the march of progress a bomb sitters sit is preferred to be let alone and Dari and her shameful condition. But Martin Luther King Jr went there and today St Augustine moves in the direction of a complete civilized community. America talked about home of the free contented to let these and other such communities go their way is and continue to mar the beautiful image our great nation enjoy thanks to Martin Luther King Jr and many other great souls who joined with him to preach the gospel of brotherhood. America has a workable civil rights bill. The constitutionality of which is a stablished by the Supreme Court all because of Martin Luther King and worked in this century the freedom that Dr King has fostered makes all the men free and there is no wonder that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to him. We rejoice with him and. We rejoice with him we thank him that he has been so long selfish and self giving to do the great service for mankind not the king the Baptist ministers conference operator New York has committed me to say to you that I will support for the nonviolent movement will not only continue but will increase until we use shall realize your dream. Unfortunately rabbi I'm not sure and president of the New York Board of Rabbis as unable to be present. In his stead we will be honored with the president to Rabbi William Berkowitz jam an executive committee. Rabbi. Mr Randolph Dr and Mrs King Governor Rockefeller fellow clergymen this thing wish later in my fellow citizens. There is a beautiful Hebrew teaching. Which tells that a long time ago a rabbi was asked it is written shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all that I saw and with all that I might and yet how can we love God when we cannot see him and the rabbi answered say we can love God Bess by loving his letters bass after all how does a child learn the alphabet he learns one letter at a time and then he combines the letters into words and the words into sentences so said the rabbi every person is but one letter in God's book the more letters you come to treasure the more you can love God. My friends this is the challenge that comes to every human being and to our twentieth century society are we treasuring or are we blurring the letters of. Alas we have succeeded in the racing the letters of God Millions of them in war alas we have succeeded in segregating indiscriminating you know pressing millions of them at home and abroad No we haven't in our generation learned how to treasure the letters of God in the knowledge that every human being white black red yellow of every race and every Cree in every corner of the earth is an equal consonant in the vocabulary of the divinity However in every dark age there appear upon the stage of humanity those who help us to show the way who teach us this ancient truth that the more we love our fellow man the more we love God. Indeed such as the man whom we have come to honor tonight the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King. I vividly I recall his words of a few years ago when a few hours after his arrest as a leader of the Negro passive resistance against the city bus lines in Montgomery Alabama he said to his brethren and I quote We must draw is up only with a weapon a protest we must use the weapon of love we must realize so many people are taught to hate us that they are not wholly responsible for their hate. But we stand in life at midnight we're always on the threshold of a new dawn. Yes ever since that day to this very moment at a time when his people where in our victim. By hate this minister of God heard and urges the weapon of love at a time when those of his race are being exploited harassed and brutally explodes to cruelty this modern prophet exhorts his people the compassion for those who hate them at a time when a religious leader might have become in bitter he urges the use of the weapon of protests as one of the greatest glories of America. Behold does he not follow in the tradition of the great heroes and figures of our Bible like Abraham and like most is like Samuel like the other giants among men he too has heard the call of his people it's the call of the we have been Sporn and rejected saying save us it's the call of millions of his people saying teach us Pro Tech the US is a call of his brethren saying help us in our right to vote to eat to sleep to sit where others do to be part of this great land of opportunity and all these calls from his people Dr Martin Luther King Jr has come forward with prophetic faith with rare devotion great self-sacrifice with unusual eloquence replying in answering these collective cold without a mortal biblical reply of the name here I am ready to serve you and to lead you my people into the path of nonviolence and to the path of love and of compassion. As I began with an ancient teaching so I should like to conclude there is a beautiful Jewish legend that says that in Heaven the patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob do not recites their prayers at the same time for if they were permitted to do so the impact of three such heavenly men praying at one time would create such a spiritual explosion as to bring on the messiah before his rightful time ladies and gentlemen the impact of even one good man is a very important thing and for one such good man as Martin Luther King we have much to be thankful for and thus Dr King upon this occasion worldwide recognition accorded to you upon the receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize I bring to you that the purpose respect the warmest congratulations. Of the New York Board of Rabbis the largest rabbinic body in the world I bring to you the blessing of more than nine hundred Jewish spiritual leaders I bring to you sir are the prayers and the hopes of the Jewish people who have done so much for the civil rights movement that God may continue to protect you and inspired you to carry forward your noble and a mortal where we pray Dr King may you ever go forward from strength to strength Thank you. Yes. The vice president of the United States. Thank. You. Be patient and he will be here thank you. Thanks thanks thanks. The IT. Right away. Raiders in general member vice president of the United States. The is. Thank you very much. Thank you. My good friend Mr Randolph. Governor Rockefeller state mayor of the city Mayor Wagner are honored and. Distinguished great American Dr Martin Luther King members of your family ladies and gentlemen I am very honored to be on this platform tonight with such an illustrious group of fellow citizens and for just a few moments I'd like to recall an experience that I believe lives in the memory of all of us a little over a year ago. Martin Luther King. And I had the pleasure of participating in a different kind of gathering that time Dr King it was the March on Washington. And with the same feeling of joyous commitment that I sense here tonight amongst all of your many friends and admirers hundreds of thousands of Americans white and Negro demonstrated on that day in August of one nine hundred sixty three their dedication to as you put it the dream yes the dream which Dr King on that day so movingly and eloquently described how could we ever forget that moving and brilliant message. Tonight my friends we meet under superficially changed circumstances Dr King. As the recipient of one of the greatest honors that modern civilization can bestow upon a fellow human being they Nobel Peace Prize. And tonight I come to you at least as vice president elect of the United States but I say. But I say once again these changes are indeed superficial. The honor that the world has paid to Dr King's accomplishments. And the decision of the American electorate in my case have not brought about any fundamental change in our actions or our aspirations. Our attachment to the dream the dream that was so beautifully articulated on that occasion in Washington from the Lincoln Memorial our attachment to the dream of a great and free society built around the principles of justice and equality a community where men and women will be judged on their merits and not on their skin color or their religion or their ethnic origin or their economic background that dream remains the same tonight as it was Dr King when we marched together. Yes As we march together down the mall at our nation's capital in August a year ago what has occurred and I'm convinced that. This does mark a fundamental change is that in the months that have passed do much to your great and inspiring leadership we have at the practical level of community life we have broken the power of race is on in our American society. Yes And more than one way there is an abyss between last year Andy Samberg of one thousand nine hundred sixty four. Our late in beloved President John Kennedy the gallant boy or in the cause of freedom. Who initiated the first meaningful and comprehensive civil rights act in modern history that warrior for freedom is gone but I am happy to say that a new leader a new president yes southern in background but American to the core has carried on. And he carried on the cause and brought to a final an act meant a great Bale a strong bail and not only did he with infinite skill and dedication and patients secure a congressional enactment of this charter of hope and charter of freedom but he then went before the American people and he fought in the north the south and east in the West for this charter of freedom. Thank goodness because there are a man regardless of party. And as the governor of the state mare of this city. The president of the United States because of this. That little hand poem. Those who are unwilling to realize that a new day has dawned that little handball is no longer. A meaningful power in the American community. Yes Dr King you've led the legions of decency in this country and today. You you with your leadership men in public life men and private life people of all races creeds and nationalities we have put in retreat those who still advocate racism and they are clearly the rear guard of a defeated past. I would want you to believe that there are no other problems and indeed there are yet there's something different about today in something that we've never known before today there is a will a will to triumph over racial discrimination and all of its manifestations that's what's different tonight Dr King Mrs King members of your family behalf of the American people I want to of all to pay tribute to your wisdom to your patience to your leadership. All I was moved as I'm sure all of you were by the address of our honored guest this evening at a slow when he spoke to the students at Oslo Norway may I say Dr King you are in the Navy the country of my mother who was born only a few miles from Oslo. Dr King spoke of the role that nonviolence. As played in the struggle for human rights in the United States and he used a striking formulation by the way what on magnificent oratory and speaker we have a leader. Listen to these peers seen in profound words Dr I take them from your text we adopt the means of nonviolence speak cause our end is a community at peace with itself a community at peace with itself could anyone have put more clearly and succinctly the object eve of a free and democratic society than in those words a community at peace with itself. In a very real sense all of us who have been working in this cause of human rights and the establishment of racial justice in the United States had been striving for a community at peace with itself long ago in one nine hundred forty eight at least it seems rather long ago when I was privileged to introduce the civil rights plank at a party convention the Democratic convention at fellow delegate said these words to me and they have remained in my memory he said why are you mixed up in this senator a mare Humphrey I was then the mayor of Minneapolis you have no negroes to speak of in Minnesota. You don't owe them anything what are you getting involved for. And I told him then and I say to you sixteen years later. That I got mixed up in the civil rights movement because I wanted to be able to look at myself in my own eyes I wanted to be at peace. To Iraq. I wanted to be at peace with myself. And my conscience and my God. Throughout these many years dear friends we have built a great coalition of conscience in this country a coalition that knows no party that knows no region a coalition of whites in the Grose a coalition of different religions people who know that before you can ever look anyone in the eye you have to be willing to confront yourself and make peace with your own conscience. And Dr King is also right profoundly right when he advocates nonviolence as the basic instrument of any minority group trying to alter the attitudes of a majority in a democratic nation yes some fanatics always exist in any group that is discriminated against who urged violence as the road to instant liberation. But thank goodness the American Negro has been far too intelligent to adopt those consuls of violence and despair. What that all of us had the same patience and may I say the same commitment to freedom and nonviolence these people have never confused the United States with all of its admitted failures in the area of race relations they have never confused this may love America with a police state instead they have adopted the position set forth by Dr King in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize that civilization and violence are antithetical concepts and negroes of the United States have demonstrated that not that nonviolence is not sterile past seventy but a powerful moral force which makes Fort social transformation so said Dr King. Yes my friends we now know that peace is more than the absence of violence we know that peace is justice and peace is compassion and pieces dignity and peace is understanding and above all peace is love of one another true brotherhood. And in this spirit. And with the magnificent Christian witness of Dr King as the focus for their clan courage the negroes of Montgomery issued their great challenge to the conscience of the American people and to their eternal credit the American people slowly at first but with growing force and determination have responded it with decency and with justice for all. I remember your words Dr King you said the torturous road which has led from Montgomery Alabama to Oslo bears witness and it does it bears witness to the truth of your conviction and this is a road over which millions of negroes are traveling to find a new sense of dignity so said are honored guest of the evening and those of us who in the spirit journeyed with Dr King from Montgomery to Oslo and this number includes many millions of white Americans as well as Negro We are deeply in your debt and more deeply perhaps than we can ever realize for the truth of the matter is the truth of the matter is when the dignity of one American is denied all of us have been I. And in this part surest journey that you have told us about. Dr King the dignity of all Americans has been and still is at stake in your pilgrimage and only when our Negro citizens have achieved this rightful standing in the American community can any of us truly feel the exhilaration that grows from integrity from dignity and then I say my friends only them well the United States of America really be a community at peace with itself which is our wish our hope and our prayer I salute this great American for his deeds The acknowledge. Our next speaker. Is the brilliant civil rights activists national director of Congress of Racial Equality James Farmer. I am. Mr Randolph going to Rockefeller. Vice president elect Humphrey distinguished guests ladies and gentleman. And a very real sense when Off-Ramp down the leader Martin Luther King was honored by the world the world was honoring all black men in our country who have struggled for freedom. When he received the honor of all black man an American North and South stood a little bit taller. And spoke to the world with much greater pride than ever before the honor was his and the honor was your lips they are not belong to on man and on women and on children who have participated in the revolution which Martin Luther King gave birth to you know a country. That if not for Montgomery the civil rights revolution would never have started had it not been thought Birmingham the civil rights revolution would never have gained momentum it spread all over the country and now my friends it is spreading all over the world not only. Not only has the functions of America been awakened by this great profit whom we tonight. But the imagination of the entire world has been captured by his eloquence by his dignity by his courage and by his intelligence my friends I know Dr King well enough to know that his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prizes will not be considered by him as a reward for the past it will be considered even more of a promise for the future. A promise for the future. That we will not rest Martin Luther King will not rest you black and white Americans who care for dignity and freedom will not rest until I one nation deserves from the peoples of the world a Nobel Peace Prize for freedom. I want all knowing. That I want. To see the rest of the know that we're going to continue with men and for and just enough to not know. That they are not here just. Now at this stage I have the honor to present to you Mr Nathan swearing up who is the father. Of Michael Schwerner. Who was an associate of Robert Goodman and James Chaney. Three gallant dedicated young Americans who place their lives up on the altar of human rights and were murdered by savages in Mississippi and we want that Mr. Well come forward I'm bowing to this audience and this audience to him I'm just family. I damn time. I have thought through your. Wonderful to this wonderful gathering on behalf. Of. Dr King wonderful work. And those three words are. We shall overcome. Thank. God. We will now listen the Faith Temple acquired directed by Professor. Stephen. So noisy job. Well now saying. Do you. Come. God oh my. God log on. Oh oh oh. To present to this great audience the national leader of the civil rights movement in the United States a man who has done outstanding work while the freedom movement hears more responsibly. All the Civil Rights Act of one thousand and sixty than any other single individual in the country I present to you the distinguished executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of. Colored People Roy wrote and. I know. My good friend Philip Randolph. Who made almost made one of the. One of the first slips these ever made in thirty eight years that I know on Martin Luther King and Mrs King and Governor Rockefeller and distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen you know we all came here tonight for one purpose to do honor to a man whom we love and esteem and admire. And to show the people in Europe that the folks back home love him just as much as they do. You know there was a great deal of talk when this great Nobel Prize was announced for Dr King about whether it was fitting or not you know the one thing about our white people we can always depend on they can do more debating about this and that and the other. You know when we suddenly burst on the horizon and claim something or win something they have to hold a philosophical discussion as to whether it's right or not. So they were trying to figure out. What the Nobel committee had already figured out. That is whether the prize belonged to Dr King for peace and I grew up in Minnesota along with human Humphrey. And I consider myself at least one for a Scandinavian. Now don't you laugh you know don't you laugh and don't you be seized the deceived by skin color and say. You know that's why we keep telling you don't depend on the skin color I am about one for Scandinavia never mind. Or anyway I can tell you and then when the Swedes and Danes and the Norwegians make up their mind there isn't any use in anybody writing an editorial in The St Petersburg Times. Of course all joking aside of course this prize was for peace and of course it went to the man who in our time in our country. In the most difficult problem that has faced this country in all its existence because you know we've been here since sixteen nineteen. The man who signify. Exemplified. And lived. That struggle for peace is Martin Luther King. And now it's true of course that each one of us shares a little in this prize everyone who ever struggled for civil rights every one who raised his voice everyone who prayed and sang every mother who raised her daughter and her son to be upstanding citizens every man who got into the fray on the front line on the picket line in the March or in the sit in. All the complainants and the plaintiffs in the legal suits that were brought to tear down the structure of segregation and discrimination all these people share was Martin Luther King in the Nobel Prize. Am. And has been said there is no no color line in this army of freedom white people are fighting for freedom and have been fighting for they have shed their blood for us and we for them and all the people overseas cognizant of the struggle wanted to show that they too were in the fight and how they felt about it and so they singled out this man who embodies all of our hopes all of our fear all of our aspiration. He says the things that we once said that we can save for ourselves and to Martin Luther King. And to the movement behind him. And the people behind that movement and the hearts that drove the people behind that movement they gave this great honor Martin we salute you we love you and we want the world to know that tonight and all the nights here after you are our and we are yours THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. All the honor and great pleasure of presenting to this great audience the great governor. Of the great state of New York. Is on a. Nominal Rockefeller thank you thank you. Reverend and Mrs Martin Luther King Jr. Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. Was Here I was brought up. Thank you. Chairman fell Randolph. Ladies and gentleman Phil Randolph if the ever was a man who was a servant of God It's still Randolph ladies and gentlemen. It's an honor for me to be introduced to this gathering by him a man who has devoted his whole life to the service of others when a young. Right well can. Jim Farmer John Lowe was just the Schwerner. And all this host of other workers in the vineyard who are here gathered tonight fellow Americans the people of the state of New York Dr King the people of this country and those throughout the world who are dedicated to human dignity and freedom share with this great gathering the saving here tonight the honor that is bestowed on Dr King a man among men a man. Whom we cannot help but love and respect because of his unique courage courage ladies and gentleman in a world torn with Hayden fear courage to love courage to stand despite the dangers all of the attacks all of the aspersions a man who has the courage to stand for principle unfaltering as a big can light period so aptly described by the vice president of these United States as a period of tremendous change and progress in the achievement of those venues which we as a nation cherish most dearly and ladies and gentleman a man who dares to dream who has had the dreams of this future not for any one group not for any small list of people but a dream for all Americans to share in the great heritage of this country and share a life this is the dream that Martin Luther King is helping to make a reality in America the Nobel Peace Prize is one of the great awards in the history of mankind in the history of civilized man. As has been so beautifully said tonight we share as Americans in this honor bestowed upon him I would like to add ladies and gentleman that in my opinion Dr Martin Luther King's Jr is receipt of this award has elevated a little higher the meaning of the Nobel Peace Prize thank you very much. And I want to request. A charming white. Govern Iraq Oliver Stone. It's a great pleasure for me to present to you the dedicated and resourceful executive director of. The National Urban League my good friend Whitney Young Jr. Mr Philip Randolph the to Martin Luther King and his wife Governor Rockefeller ladies and gentlemen as one who administers an organization that daily is called upon to place qualified Negro workers and jobs and who all too often is told that they have got to be better than the average in fact the word usually comes out please send us a secretary who typed one hundred twenty words a minute new looks like Lena Horne and please send us an accountant who has a background of a Ralph Bunche And so it was with the Nobel Peace Prize we had to do better. Then the ordinary and we did it. We gave them a Martin Luther King I. Would like you to know high above that if the judges had any difficulty in selecting this crusader I have the southern US feel that they have been unduly put up on there. Also lucky if they had ever known his father the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr they want to really been and probably. Known to the world as an unpretentious man drawn before his time from the Spock of black people Dr Martin Luther King Jr as the recipient of the Nobel Peace or war that deserves more than any other American what this award signified with this award came the recognition of Dr King the civil rights leader who has nonviolently Araik to the shackles of discrimination Dr King the philosopher who has used peaceful techniques of civil disobedience to infuse democracy from Yale to jail. Dr King the selfless minister whose words and deeds are as revered as a solemn all nice to Sunday all the three wise men that Christmas Dr King the daredevil crusader who spiritual guidance we all need and respect. He came at a time of great need to exemplify what the twentieth century should represent in this treatment of humanity during those years when our presence of those ation phases you enormous challenges of survival to those of Mississippi. Alabama who would say let us keep quiet about our injustices demand the Nobel Peace Committee has said you can never keep in justice wired to the world I was told as a young man from the hills of Kentucky are these my father before me was taught even better just saying I'm common I'm common for my head is been laying low my name is Old Black Joe But Dr King like my generation has been told a different song and so now we sing it I'm a common I'm a common but my head ain't been the lone. I'm standing tall I'm walking straight I'm the new black jewel. And they are there for John on behalf of the National Urban League it's seventy affiliates and particularly the New York Urban League affiliate here did by Mr Alexander Allen in paying tribute to Dr Martin Luther King for what he has done for us a well deserved tribute to a leader so noble and so great thank you very much. We will now be favored by. Yeah. Caca. Thank you. Dramatic Presentation. And arranged by. Television. Revenue Martin Luther King Sr Martin Luther King Jr Mrs Coretta King Jr Governor Rockefeller and all the other worthy and honorable men on the stage I am happy to come tonight Ruby Dee and myself representing in our own way the sentiments the good wishes the feeling of Thanksgiving that we feel and the artistic community. That one of our own has set us an even higher example to follow. I made a rash promise to Mr Cleveland Robinson that I would write a skit and that Ruby and I would perform that skit before you tonight but no office no performer no actor likes to follow such big guns as are on the stage here tonight. Ought to pretend that anything could be more dramatic than Harlem's welcome home to its own son Reverend Martin Luther King. However I did have occasion one time when I wasn't busy to write a play based rather wildly on the life of a man like Reverend Martin Luther King some of you may know the Play it was called victorious. Thank you. And Reverend Curly had a few things to say which I think might be appropriate here tonight he too stood and addressed his audience such as you sitting before me here tonight and he said tonight my friends I'm fine and being black a thing of beauty a joy a friend a secret cup of blackness a native land and neither time nor place on land in every negro face accept in full the sweet. Black ness not wishing to be rid of wind or yellow. Or any other race off phase but this. Thank you and now the other and better half of the team of Davis and Ruby Dee. The the philosophy of nonviolence as expounded by Dr King. Is embraced times by all of us here tonight our fervent hope is that our nation will embrace it that all the nations of the world will embrace the philosophy of nonviolence that all the people and all the nations banded together and rule out violence and the solution of any of its problems so that someday we may come to know. To groups in our states no more violence white again. No more Negro violence desperate to be free. No more violence man against man as we have and no more soldiers no more no more nuclear bombs no. May the philosophy of nonviolence truly embrace our world. I am reminded of a little a little poem comes to mind now which I'd like to share with you he drew a circle to shut me out rebel heretick a thing to fly out. But love and I had the wit to win we drew a circle that took in thank you. I am. Thank you. Next. Young Raul from Beckman back to. Representing the youth of Harlem Let's go back. Thank you Mr Randall Reverend Dr Martin Luther King and Mrs Cain Governor Rockefeller may awaken a column you ladies and gentlemen distinguished guests that evening I always imagine referent King to be a gladiator eight feet tall but now I see him in person and we'll now realize he looks more like David to slow the giant. I now have a gigantic if not impossible task ahead of me that is to pay tribute to. Reverend King and for minutes no doubt it would be easier to scale the dark side of the moon or some other impossible task love or hate true or false. Rationality irrationality nonviolence on off hour winds. Reverend Martin Luther King has shown us that love will triumph over hate that you will triumph over for certain that rationality will triumph over irrationality and we hope that nonviolence will triumph over violence. We all agree a dream is a man's most precious possession at the March on Washington the citadel of democracy Reverend King told us of his dream and now he's making this dream a reality for all of us the young. The pass the present and above all the future generations as long as your dream lives Reverend King amateur. John Chaney and the countless others will not have died in vain from income or a bus boycott to the streets of St Augustine Florida from jail to Yale and now to Oslo Norway who knows what great deeds you will perform in a future but no matter where you go they will always be a place for you in the hearts of the youth of Holland. Reverend King we are you follow him thank you and salute you and in closing I would like to say that you and you are being trained to continue in the great struggle that you are so much a part we are learning to lead and to follow there's much that we are learning but one thing we have learned already. It's to be thankful that you have taken that proverbial first step and that you reference Dr Martin Luther King have paid the way for more high use everywhere referencing the feet this respect and gratitude. I would like to say Go Down Moses tell them to let our brothers go. Thank you a young rector. Now let me present to you the dedicated chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating. Committee. John Lewis. Mr Chairman Dr King male black Governor Rockefeller latest injunctive. Tonight just a little more than a man a people a nation but we salute our cause tonight as we salute Dr King just a little more than twenty million citizens who are still struggling for complete social economic and political equality. And we salute Dr King tonight we're saluting one hundred fifty thousand negroes who walked the streets among government Alabama. Rather than rise of a gate at buses as we salute Dr King. We also live in hundreds and thousands of young Negro students who left a college campus in one nine hundred sixty two and segregation were peaceful mean at lunch counters and restaurants. We salute Dr King the pants you do for the young people of Birmingham Alabama who for years police thought water holes and jail bought of thousands in the great strive toward freedom as we salute Dr King we are Penn trivial but I mean a brave and courageous young people both black and white who went to Mississippi the sum of our own and our minds and bodies to quicken the day our political freedom in that state as we salute Dr King tonight we append to that more than four hundred and fifty thousand like that isn't a myth a separate will struggling for the right to vote the right to have some control over the political destiny of the final meeting of our own organization in April in one nine hundred sixty S. it was Dr King who's there due to us what you will and we will still love you we will meet you also the go forth with soul for you may bomb our home and spit on our true drum and we will still love you but be assured that we will wear you down with our capacity to suffer in recognition a doctor came from it meant that a philosophy or nonviolence and all this courageous leadership. And a contribution he made a call to world peace and brotherhood the Nobel Peace Prize committee had no charge but he so like Dr King felt such an honor we are the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee so a lot of philosopher a lot of Alito and a real friend Dr King. Thank you John I want to read a statement to you which is of interest concerning our great leader. Dr King the dedication and faithfulness of Dr Martin Luther King. Is nowhere more fully revealed than in the manner in which he has repeatedly faced without fear every manner of harassment and indignity has brought the same qualities to his stewardship other financial contributions entrusted to do is care from the early days of the Montgomery bus boycott those of us who have been closest to him have been deeply impressed with his eternal vigilance in these regards Not only does he raise over three hundred thousand dollars a year for our great movement by tirelessly traveling from city to city across this land but he has I know kept his pledge that none of these funds shall be used for him self or its family as the dark forces of Mississippi and Alabama would have the gullible and the detractors believe now Dr King carries the same spirit of good stewardship. In a movement wide responsibility for today's he announced that the fifty four thousand new personnel a receiving and which he could have kept for himself and his family and many men would have done so will be donated to the whole civil rights movement he had. He has with great not tonus and great wisdom decided to divide the prize money in the following manner. One seventeen thousand will be given to the civil rights organizations which comprise the unity council These include Corps and the bill A.C.P. and the Lacey P. Legal Defense Fund National Council of Negro Women National Urban League. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating. Committee they are now to be given each organization. Will be determined by the unity council with a further stipulation that Southern Christian Leadership Conference which is also a member of the excluded two twelve thousand will be given to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference the organization of which is President third largest portion the balance of approximately eight to twenty five thousand will be placed in a special fun to be devoted to further words of education in the realm of nonviolence. I a lot of therefore I ask you to join with me enter only applauding Dr King for the spirit of unselfishness and unity and which is given of the prize money part of further ends of the calls of our great movement that's all. Thank you. Thank you for that fine manifestation of concern and interest. American people. You believe. You are. Someone. Who. You. Marry. You. Thank you for that beautiful song we will now have a. Drum corps. Present. The present. The first Negro captain of a police force in New York City. What. Was. It. But. The but. I'm sure they're not. Going to. I am. Length. Thank you. If. Your schedule. To use. A great man. The great city of New York. The Honorable Robert Wagner. The is thank you very much. For Randolph. My distinguished guest Dr King. Wonderful father and mother and the rest of the family have been a Rockefeller Mrs Rockefeller. All of the Distinguished ladies and gentlemen here the save. This is my third opportunity today to speak for the people of New York City and paying tribute to Dr Martin Luther King hero of the struggle for justice and ways of pizza is. At noon today and a historic chambers of the city council of our city hall. In the presence of the highest officials of our city and many who are here this evening and of the proud members of his own family I was privileged to bestow upon Dr King the Baghdadi and of honor of the city of New York. The if then just a full few hours ago and walled off Astoria the city of New York gave an official reception in honor of Dr King of the size and kind usually reserved for chiefs of state and heads of government to him at that perception I hailed Dr King as I do again here in this armory as an adopted son of New York City thank you. We are deeply fiercely proud of him I said in the city council and I recall a game tonight. That last summer in the midst of a trouble that broke out in New York I turned to Dr King for counsel. And today I am proud to turn to him and wish him Madi as Congratulations. And tonight it is my great pleasure to join with all of you here at the armory and again paying the respects of the city to this very great American. Who won Europe as he has America. With the integrity of his person the quality of his spirit and the brilliance of his mind in honoring him we honor a man who has been honored by the world. Indeed his achievements have the quality of universality his achievements are unique. He is in our power and eloquence appealing to both the heart and the mind but he was not honored for his oratorio he is a great spiritual leader learned in the doctrine and principles and works of his faith but he was not honored for his achievements in the church of his calling he has written of complex subjects with force and clarity but he was not honored especially for his writing Dr King was paid one of the world's highest tributes for achievements which have no physical dimensions and which cannot be translated into visual images are graphic of any kind His achievements are in the weightless world of the spirit. They can says step faith faith in what he stands for faith in the doctrine of nonviolent action which he preaches faith in the principles of peace and the dignity of man Dr King is respected be lover and followed by millions of Americans of all races and creeds like Iraq he has remained steadfast in his advocacy of the principles of nonviolence he has seen the storms of the past years beat themselves out upon this rock he has seen and we all have seen the cause for what at an ever increasing pace not fast enough but not far enough to satisfy the requirements of here and now. But the direction is hallway and the pace quickens each day. Sometimes it is hard to see the forward movement at the center of the cyc loan there is little motion but there is no doubt that we are in the midst of a revolution a massive upheaval whose affects our immense and still far in my judgment from its climax. It is my proud privilege as mayor of this city to present to this audience a major leader of that revolution a man of peace but of irresistible force Dr Martin Luther King. Thank. I want to thank you I want to take this opportunity at this time to present to you the final day of Dr Martin Luther King. Talked to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Miss Christine All right just. Reverend a Duquesne his brother. Reverend I've been out there his closest associate. With I haven't. I want to represent the charming competent president of the National Council of Negro Women. That I represent to you Dr King. Chairman. Dr King. Governor. Governor Rockefeller Mayor Wagner friends old. Martin Luther King. The committee planning tonight felt that we wanted to give to you a token of our love and appreciation you have already won the great prize you have achieved it but what we have tonight. Is just how much you know that we here are your people and we feel we honor you because you are a great dreamer. And I for. One added word that Lilian Paul has brought to this concept of the dreamer that we think symbolizes what you are lonely and sad as you described democracy on the march that we needed not only dreamers but dreamers with shovels and in their hands ma'am you have only to have a face that is deep enough and a belief sufficiently firm in their daily work and living that things are can be done and they will be done. And then he says what is needed more is not only conviction but a sense of urgency and a sense that this is the moment this is the time in history to turn the first shovel there are some he says to dream great dreams but they never do anything about it we are here with our expression of love because you are an example of the dreamer with a shovel in hand. One who knows. That a job can be done if one invests himself in fighting in it Martin Luther King those of us in this room. Are the people who are glad to see you at home in harmony we are the workers. And we are the people who are looking for work we are the young. Who see a new a worthy example for all the man whatever their race or color we all the children. Who look forward to the day to support your dream we are the women. Who are from the earliest days have been back up our home our family been at your side and who look ahead with you to a brighter future for all. We are the men of achievement and we are the man who longed for the day when their families might be indeed secure indeed we here are all walks of life and we have chosen as our symbols of our love and appreciation the work of a great sculptor it is known to all of us is the praying hand. There are many legends about. And one would hesitate even to tell you any of them. But the thing that felt that the committee felt was most symbolic here was that of the legend of. The older brother who was always working hard all his life to help this younger brother and he gave everything that he had to the job to be done. Dreaming of a day when things would be better the younger brother was ever inspired by his love for his dedication his devotion and his sacrifice and the younger brother talented though he was often wondered how the older brother could do it all one day he stepped into his older brother study and found him on his knees with his hands. Expressing his prayer his face his determination and the sculptor it is said created these hand we want you Martin Luther King to take things as a tiny expression of our love and appreciation and on behalf of all of us here. I have the pleasure to present this as presented to Dr Martin Luther King Jr nineteen forty six sixty four Nobel Prize Prize when we. Your friends of New York City greet you with love and affection as the moral symbol of the struggle for so civil rights so be held and in the eyes of the world this is presented by the community committee. Martin Luther King Jr December seventeenth one thousand nine hundred sixty four here in Harlem in the city of New York. Fran. The Civil Rights Movement Negro leadership in America A Philip Randolph. Is a distinguished governor of this great state. Governor Rockefeller. Two of the great May out of the city that. I consider the greatest city and the world male Wagner. My dear friends and colleagues and the civil rights movement distinguish that from gas. My brothers and sisters of Harlem the great city of New York. Words are an adequate for me to communicate. The deep Joe I that comes to my heart this evening. As a result of your turning out in such large numbers I'm now as a result. Of the right kind and gracious words that have been uttered prior to my standing in this position and I can assure you that it is a great pleasure to return from Europe. To Harlem and be in this meeting tonight and the capital of negro America. I come here with a great sense of humor at military and a deep sense of gratitude. As I look back over our long days. Bob difficult days of struggle in the south I realize that we would not have been able to carry on if it had not been for the support. That the humble people of Harlem and the numerous churches of this community and friends of goodwill all over this nation gave us and so I want to thank you tonight for all of the support that you have given across the years in this struggle for freedom and human dignity. Let me assure you also all that your expressions of support and your expressions of confidence tonight will give me renewed courage and they got to carry on and the struggle that has taken place all over our nation. Now naturally I was deeply moved. To be the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. As I said the other night in Austin on always. I could not consider of the Peace Prize that as a tribute to me personally. I hope I will never get that egotistic that our gun but I see it as something much larger on the Nobel Creek Peace Prize was on a wall. To the whole civil rights movement in the United States and to its dedicated leaders. Some months ago I was and Chicago at the O'Hare Airport getting ready to take a flight to Los Angeles California and I never will forget when we walked out to board the flight British soon we were notified that that would be a slight delay a mechanical delay. As I stood there looking at that mighty jet plane which would produce soon move out through the tax a lane and then to the takeoff lanes I saw a group of men move out to the plane most of them and overalls they were dirty and Griese in. That hand join even Griese a they started engaging in various responsibilities getting that plane in shape to make them I did Journey someone next to me said that the ground crew and I started thinking the British soon that plane would be taken on it would move up into the sky. Not long after that it would reach its cruising altitude and not long after that we would be crossing the snow capped rockers of Colorado and then after a while we would land in Los Angeles California after we got off I started thinking about the pilots of that mighty gigantic ship Naturally I thought about the stood us because our names well placed neatly on the boards and. All along the journey you could hear. The pilots and you could know that you had good pilots and that you had wonderful young ladies to serve but as I made that journey. Over and over again something came to my mind which said don't forget the ground crew. As I stand before you tonight I do want to pay tribute to the great pilots of aam movement who have sat at the controls and. Guided this might of flight through turbulent and sometimes. Lower hovering clouds of adversity but they've got it his own Roy Wilkins James Farmer with new young John Lewis hard to hide another. And we are moving along today because we have might have pilots tonight also want you to think of the fact that this plane never would have gotten a fellow by the name of modern Luther King never would have been known in history probably that I hadn't been to my to ground crew in Montgomery Alabama fifty thousand strong. You know I say to you tonight down names may never be known bad names will never be edge in the history books of our nation maybe we may never see them in the headlines individually but these are the people that constitute the ground crew and the night Zeid think back over the years that we have struggled and as I think back over. The night when we started in Montgomery Alabama I think of Rosa Parks the magnificent member of the human race. I think of all Sister policy mob aloso later. On today but profoundly intelligent one day someone stopped after we had walked met him in a month and said Don't you want to ride. She said no and they said I want to tie you she said yes my feet sis tired but my soul is rested. As I think about the ground crew I think about the hundreds and thousands of nameless students who through that courage through that determination and to that commitment to nonviolence given us a great movement which stands as a refresh and always has in the midst of a desert land sweltering with the heat of an just as an exploitation when in one nine hundred sixty they started sitting down at segregated lunch counters to protest the conditions are. They way in reality to standing up for the best in the American dream and carrying our whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers and the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence they constituted a great ground crew. And I give tribute to them. So tonight we have. Many many people on a. Many many individuals to pay tribute to I think though those who have given their lives in this struggle Medgar have a Mickey Schwerner and a Goodman James Chaney. And others who have given their lives. We must never forget them somehow I still believe that on merit to suffering is redemptive. Maybe that from the blood of those young men. A whole nation will be ready that we will rise to high a height of brotherhood and understand I would also like to mention another fact because somehow I never get out of debt I live eternally in the red all that I am a home. I am indebted to so many people and I'm so happy that some of them are here tonight a wonderful father and mother sister and brother. Great bindings Brandon a great leader in his own right Ralph Abernathy and his lovely wife. But above all that is a little later here tonight if I've been able to do anything in my humble efforts I want you to know why I've been able to do it. Vive done anything in the struggle. It is because I've had behind me and at my side a devoted understanding dedicated patient companion and a person of my wife Coretta Scott King. And our friends I returned home. More determined than ever before to give my life. To the struggle to remove racial injustice. From average area of on the nation's life. I returned home more convinced than ever before that segregation is evil and I return home more convinced than ever before that segregation is nothing but a new fall most slavery covered up with sudden Nicetas of complexity. So I am determined to join you in working to get rid of segregation they call it hurts all people segregation. Segregation gives a segregated off all sense of superiority and it's all families the segregated with a false sense of inferiority. We must make it clear to all of this land that we also through with racial segregation now hand for wealth and fall album off. And I'm gravely this stressed over the news which reached us and I'll slow. That on the same day the civil rights movement was receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. A U.S. commissioner in Mississippi was dismissing charges against night scene of the man arrested by the F.B.I. in connection with the brutal slaying of three civil rights voter registration workers in Mississippi last summer the people of Europe shattered this to distress and I'm convinced that the whole national conscience. Must be mobilized to deal with the tragic situation of violence terror and blatant failure of justice in Mississippi and is something isn't done to give relief to the hundreds and thousands of black men and women in that state who are struggling mail it to be free then all manner of good will will have no alternative but to boycott Mississippi products and refuse the Bible Thank you. So we must go all out to get rid of the evil in the Mississippi is and all those sections of our nation that may say that Ailes all return home cognizant of the fact that we still face many problems and we still face so many as situations that make us feel that we don't count we've known three hundred forty five years of oppression now we've known the dolphin desolate night of man's inhumanity to man we're still at the bottom of the economic ladder and so many things have happened in our lives to make us feel that we don't belong. That we don't have significance but I come back to tell you tonight that you are somebody. I come back to tell you tonight that you are God's children made in His image. I come back to say to you tonight that every man from a base black to a treble white is significant on Balts keyboard. Please kill off some black complection cannot forfeit nature's claim skin may differ but affection dwells in quiet and black the same if I was so tall as to reach the Pole autographs but the ocean as a span I must be measured by my soul the mind is a standard all the man. With this kind of self-respect and the sense of some botanist we will be able to stand up and face the challenges ahead I am also returning home to join more vigorously. The wall against poverty you may not realize how many poor people down on all the world that millions of people steal gone to bed hungry tonight all Oh but I will. I've been in India on those Dalton lonely night I've seen with my own eyes piles whims of people sleeping on the sidewalks at night have no beds to sleep in no houses to go in in Bombay alone more than a million people sleep on the sidewalks at night in Calcutta more than six hundred thousand I have been all over Africa and seen the poverty of our black brothers and sisters I have seen it in South America almost two thirds of the people who will hunger and never seen a doctor audience. They battle I have learned and to pay the taxes and suddenly not the game the basic necessities of life I'm concerned about this but then I own nation that has some ten million families from prizing between Fatah and fifty in the mid individuals who are poor people they find themselves on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of the serial prosperity if America has to do I mean if America is to be a great nation he's got a side of this problem and I don't believe anybody who will tell me that this problem can't be solved objects returned from Sweden and Norway in those two countries you have no unemployment you have no slum and of these countries in Scandinavia much less powerful much smaller resources and grapple with these problems of unemployment the problems of slums and ghettos what can we do in the United States if we have the will to do it for the richest nation in the world. The problem is that so often we don't see the poor as to have input has a book and title the other American he calls a poor the invisible poor This is so often true Jesus tells us something that we must never forget in as much as he do it on to the least of these my brother and you do it on the me. Jesus tells us a story a magnificent powerful. About a rich man named Ivy's on a poor man named Lance and if you remember that story you will remember the diabetes ended up going to hell that is nothing in that store that tells us the diabetes what the hell merely because he was rich Jesus never made a universal indictment against all well it is true that on one occasion he talked to the rich young ruler and said sell all but in that situation he was prescribe individual surgery rather than setting forth a universal diagnosis and you will remember. If you will follow that power bill and all the bits and Balak structure you will remember that when diabetes was going to hell he had a conversation with a man named Abraham in heaven remember it was a millionaire and Halo talking with the poor man man in heaven. On the other end of that long distance call between heaven and hell where the real rich man it was a little millionaire in hell talking with a multimillionaire in heaven. God These went to hell because he passed by Lazarus every day and he never saw him. Diabetes went to hell because he allowed Lazarus to become invisible diabetes what the hell because he allowed the means by which he live to outdistance the ends for which he lived diabetes what the hell because he maximize the minimum and minimize the maximum possible. Diabetes went to hell because he failed to use his wealth to bridge the gulf that separated him from Lazarus and this is what we face today we have the least of these among those who are the least of the they are God's children who wake up every morning stand there not tipped or stands not knowing what to expect next who are the least of these they all the balls and girls who get up day after day and have nothing to look forward to because they can't find a job who are the least of the age they are the people who see life as nothing but a long and desolate car a door with no exit signs who are the least of the there people who see no hope no way out who are the least of these they are the people who have been deprived of the educational opportunities who are the least of these they all the people at the bottom of the economic ladder it seems that I can hear someone standing before the God of the universe saying Mass I've done my job I've gotten a lot of education I've been to the great universities yes Masta I've done well and I've been able to rise to the great heights of economic security. Seen that I can hear the master responding by saying but I was hungry and he said man I was sick and you've visited me enough I was next it and you told me not I was in prison and you were not concerned about Miss South for you are not fit to handle the kingdom of right just missed this is the moon. And so we have a challenge today. More than ever before to get rid of poverty in our nation and I am sure you and I will give my life whatever limited resources I have to join with the great president of our nation and all of the grid leaders in the various communities and states and on they should engage in this war on poverty this is one war in which we cannot afford to have any conscientious objector everybody must join this will. Knock down the use saying that I still believe that America has the resources and even the will to respond to the challenges of the Psalms I refuse to accept the idea that man is so caught up in this evil system of racial injustice that he can rise to new model of heights of brotherhood I refuse to accept the idea that man is little more than a tiny vagary of whirling electrons out of course the smoke from a limitless smoldering I refuse to accept the notion. That man is nothing but a cosmic accident a disease on this planet not soon to be cured I refuse to accept the idea we can rise up and reach for Glad they have peace and brotherhood So tonight I stand before you with a belief I believe that the day can come right here in America and all of God's children will live together does grow I believe that will be a day and justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mite history I believe. That will be updating my bubbles and systems and Harlem will not have to live in rat infested slums in the press and get homes that will be able to live with decency and honesty and have that self respect and personhood I believe today. I believe that we have the results of the trends from this pending cosmic religion. Into a creative psalm of peace I believe that even Mississippi are close aside and be Mississippi and open society one day I believe the Mississippi which has an affinity for the bottom can one day have an affinity for the top I believe somehow things can get better and dark yesterday can be transformed into a bright tomorrow I believe that the dignity and the worth of human personality will be respected one day I believe this in our lives by. This has been a marvelous day in my life marvelous week in my life I've been so happy and moved today by the great words that are going to happen by some in a wonderful people the great welcome that mail Wagner has given me to this great city I've been told Luke. I've been so moved by. The experiences that I had and you're meeting hundreds and thousands of people of goodwill so I tell you my friend for the last ten days I've been on a literal mountaintop haven't transfiguring experiences Oh we've had the privilege of meeting and talking with kings and queens meeting and talking with Prime Ministers and nation meeting and talking with the humble people of the land and I would love to stay here because it's a marvelous mountain and I can tell you that it doesn't mean a little something because I do live almost every day under the threat of death and it is a fit contrasts to have people saying nice things about you and it would be nice if I could stay up here I wish I could stay on this mountain top. Thought isn't the usual pattern of my life to have people saying nice things about me and all this is a marvelous mountain top I wish I could stay here tonight but the Valley calls me while still. I would back up staying here tonight. I was I thought stay on this bread mountain of Transfiguration that has come to me over the last ten days but there are some nine hundred and seventy odd million of my black brothers and sisters down in the state of Mississippi most of whom can't register and vote I've got to go back to the ballot box. I wish I could stay here and I would love to continue to pass through the lines and meet the great people of the world therefore there are some humble people down in the valley there are little children are born every day and clouds of inferiority are floating in their little mental skies because they don't think thing about it and somebody has got to give them hope I've got to go back to the valentine to do the little. I was taught to stay on this mountain top tonight I wish the last ten days could somehow be stretched out Aaron for night I'm but somehow something reminds me millions and millions of God's children many of them are white caught in an appetite change of poverty in the midst of an up through in society and the Call them are concerned for humanity I've got to go back to the battle ahead and try to help them I would like to play a little like. Oh if I could stay here tonight that would be one thing but the valor colds and. Well those who need hope that all those who need to find a way out and so I find you for allowing me to be on the mountain top I want to thank all slow fall on me to be on the mountain top for a few days but I've got to go back to the Battle Hymn and as I go back to this valley I go back with a face and it is in the week face or I say to you tonight my friends I'm not speaking as one who has never seen the burdens of life I've had to stand so often amid the chilly winds of adversity staggered by the jostling winds of persecution I've had to stand for one amid the searching moment of life's restlessly but I go back with a fee is a faith that evil triumphant is somehow weaker than right defeated I go back with a faith a truth crushed good will rise again I go back with the faith that the mills of the gods grind slowly but exceedingly fine I go back with a faith that you shall report just so with this faith I forgot to the ballot. And I will say as I've said all over America that working together cooperating together black and white together we will be able to speed up the day when all the thoughts children will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual Free at last free at last science thought a lie to we all created a. Free one now I have the benediction. My Reverend Dr M. Moran Reston of St John of The First Church. Almighty God. Who has called us from the darkness to see the great the light of dice son and prophet as we have turned to honor him. We have turned to the Who are the source of all life though has given us the gift of imagination that we can see be young to the distress in which we are to the bright day when men may live as brothers though has given us the gift to reason that we may take a dream and plot the steps that lead to the star. Does given us love that we may discover that we are not our brother's keeper but our brothers brother and not of the suffering the rest hold us to a victory in a world where freedom shall be the birthright of every man. Less star words be in vain we rededicate ourselves here this evening. Knowing full well that though we have the give tons of prophecy and have not. Made I Holy Spirit for send us out into this world this night and these days that we may march but high and and alongside this nice sun and prophet and to the be the honor and glory forever and ever in the blessing of God Almighty no farther the Creator the son to redeem of the Holy Spirit to guide us forever and man. Them was was. Oh OK. And. Noah. And. Load it. Was. Loaded. Was. Loaded. Oh it. Was. Saying Oh yeah. We're. In. Oh in. Thank you it was a ha you band playing that tune they've been so THEY ALL my dad's something special a play of course but as you noticed we got carried away with the program and around late and I ended payment so high you fellows thank you very very much next time better luck and ladies and gentlemen US banks and loads are coming and thank you for your warm applause Good night God bless you and sleep well.