Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

MLK: SPEECHES, SERMONS, ESSAYS, & INTERVIEWS

The Cross Cultural Solidarity History Project

Below are King’s most essential speeches, sermons, and short writings, with links to audio and video when available.  When dates are uncertain, a likely range of when a work was composed or performed is given. See also this collection of articles by MLK scholars about nearly every conceivable dimension of King’s life and thought, and this resource on books by and about King.

November, 1954: Transformed Nonconformist.

December 5, 1955: Address to the first mass meeting of the Montgomery bus boycott. Audio.

1956: The Violence of Desperate Men.

April 1956: Our Struggle.

March 18, 1956: When Peace Becomes Obnoxious.

May 7, 1956: The Death of Evil upon the Seashore. 

November 1956: Paul’s Letter to American Christians.    Audio.

January 1, 1957: Facing the Challenge of a New Age, Address Delivered at NAACP Emancipation Day Rally.

February 6, 1957: Nonviolence and Racial Justice.          

April 7, 1957: The Birth of a New Nation.  (On King’s travels to Ghana.) Audio.

May 17, 1957: Give Us the Ballot. Audio.

September 2, 1957: “A Look to the Future,” Address Delivered at Highlander Folk School’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Meeting.

November, 1957: Loving Your Enemies.  Audio.

March 9, 1959: Farewell Statement for All India Radio. Audio.

March 22, 1959: Palm Sunday Sermon on Mohandas K. Gandhi.  

July 1959: My Trip to the Land of Gandhi.  

October 1959: The Social Organization of Nonviolence.  (A response to Robert Williams call for Black people to take up arms.)

April, 1960: Pilgrimage to Nonviolence.  

March 1961: The Man Who Was a Fool.     

1961: Interview on BBC’s “Face to Face.”  Video.

September 1962: Can A Christian Be a Communist?         

July 1962 – March 1963: Shattered Dreams. 

July 1962 – March 1963: Love In Action.

July 1962  – March 31, 1963: A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart.

July 1962 – March 1963: On Being a Good Neighbor.

July 1962 – March 1963: Our God is Able.

July 1962 – March 1963: Antidotes for Fear.

July 1962 – March 1963:The Answer to a Perplexing Question.

June, 1963: A Knock at Midnight. Audio.

June 23, 1963: Great March to Freedom Rally, Detroit. Audio.

August 28, 1963: I Have a Dream. Video.  Audio. 

September 18, 1963: Eulogy for the Martyred Children. (Funeral service for the children killed in the Birmingham bombing.) Audio.

December 10, 1964: Acceptance Address for the Nobel Peace Prize. Video.

January, 1965: MLK Playboy interview. (The interviewer is Alex Hayley.)

March 25, 1965: Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March.  Audio.  

March 28, 1965:  Interview on Meet the Press, immediately following the Selma to Montgomery March. Video.

June, 1965: The Bravest Man I Ever Met.

July 4, 1965: The American Dream. Audio(different version.)

May 31, 1966: “Buddhists and Martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement”: Joint statement by Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thich Nhat Hanh, International Committee of Conscience on Vietnam.

June 5, 1966: Guidelines for a Constructive Church.   Audio.

January 25, 1967: Letter from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. nominating Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.

April 4, 1967: Beyond Vietnam.  Audio. 

April 9, 1967: The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life.   Audio.

April 14, 1967: The Other America.   Video.

August 27, 1967: Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool.   Audio.

August 16, 1967: “Where Do We Go From Here?,” Address Delivered at the Eleventh Annual SCLC Convention. Audio.

September 1, 1967: The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement.

October 26, 1967: What is Your Life’s Blueprint?Video. (No text version available.)

November/December 1967: The Impasse in Race Relations. Audio. (No text version available.)

November/December 1967: Conscience and the War in Vietnam. Audio.  (No text version available.)

November/December 1967: Youth and Social Action. Audio.  (No text version available.)

November/December 1967: Nonviolence and Social Change. Audio.

December 24, 1967: A Christmas Sermon on Peace (text incomplete.) Audio.

1967: Racism and the World House.            

1967: King interviewed on NBC.  Video.

1967: King interviewed on the Merv Griffin Show.  Video (Part 1 on civil rights, part two on Vietnam and Communism.)

February 4, 1968: The Drum Major Instinct. Audio.

February 23, 1968: Honoring Dr. Du Bois.

March 3, 1968: Unfulfilled Dreams. Audio(incomplete.)

March 18, 1968: All Labor Has Dignity.

March 31, 1968: Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.  Audio.

April 3, 1968 (the day before King’s assassination): “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” Audio.

Identifier 2602934

National Archives and Records Administration www.archives.gov

Speaker: I have the pleasure to present to you Dr. Martin Luther King, J. R.

Martin Luther King, Jr.: I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest

demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the

Emancipation Proclamation.

This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of

Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to

end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. There are those who are asking the devotees of Civil

Rights: “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the

unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of

their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For whites only.” No, no we are not satisfied,

and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former

slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice,

sweltering with the heat of oppression, be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by

the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips

dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little black

boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and

brothers. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day “every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low,

the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the

Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

This is our hope, this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew

out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the

jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able

to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom

together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day. This will be the day when all of

God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that. Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every

hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children,

black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and

sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.

[Applause and singing]

Speaker: On behalf of the National Committee on the March on Washington…

Woman singing:

Oh deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day.

White man work together, black man work together. We shall overcome some day!

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day.

Crowd singing:

We’ll walk hand in hand, we’ll walk hand in hand some day!

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe.

A. Philip Randolph: I think history was written today which will have its effect on coming generations,

with respect to our democracy, with respect to our ideals, with respect to the great struggle of man,

God, freedom, and human dignity.

Narrator: There were many who praised this day and said that there had been a new awakening in the

conscience of the nation. Others called it a national disgrace. In the wake of this day, more violence

was to come, more hatred, but in the long history of man’s cruelty to man, this was a day of hope.

Video Transcript for Archival Research Catalog (ARC) Identifier 2602934

National Archives and Records Administration www.archives.gov

Crowd singing:

Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom freedom!

Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom freedom!