I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when twenty-two million
Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative
battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award
in behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with
determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a
reign of freedom and a rule of justice.
I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children,
crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling
dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia,
Mississippi, young people seeing to secure the right to vote were
brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of
worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned
because they offered a sunctuary to those who would not accept
segregation.
I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people
and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.
Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is
beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which
has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the
Nobel Prize.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on
behalf of that movement is profound recognition that nonviolence is
the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time --
the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting
to violence and oppression.
Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the
United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that
nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which
makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the
world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and
thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of
brotherhood.
If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a
method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The
foundation of such a method is love. The tortuous road which has led
from Montgomery, Alabama, to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is
a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new
sense of dignity.
This same road has opened for all Americans a new ear of progress and
hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights bill, and it will, I am
convinced, be widened and lengthened into a superhighway of justice as
Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome
their common problems.
I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an
audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair
as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to
accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature
makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal
"oughtness" that forever confronts him.
I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the
river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround
him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound
to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of
peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must
spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear
destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will
have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated
is stronger than evil triumphant.
I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining bullets,
there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded
justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations,
can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the
children of men.
I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three
meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds,
and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that
what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build
up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of
God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent
redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.
"And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man
shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be
afraid."
I still believe that we shall overcome.
This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the
future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our
forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary
with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand
midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of
a genuine civilization struggling to be born.
Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed
dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who
love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the
depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an
honor to me personally.
Every time I take a flight I am always mindful of the man people who
make a successful journey possible -- the known pilots and the unknown
ground crew.
So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the
controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once
again, Chief (Albert) Luthuli of South Africa, whose struggles with
and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of
man's inhumanity to man.
You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet
flights to freedom could never have left the earth.
Most of these people will never make the headlines and their names
will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past
and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age
in which we live -- men and women will know and children will be
taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble
civilization -- because these humble children of God were willing to
suffer for righteousness' sake.
I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept
this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which
he holds in trust for its true owners -- all those to whom beauty is
truth and truth beauty -- and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine
brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or
gold.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Dr. King's Speeches
These are the other two famous speeches by Dr. King:
