Functional Styles. Афанасьева Н.Р - 18 стр.

       I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history     racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to
as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.      make justice a reality for all of God's children.
       Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic                    It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the
shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This            moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent
momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of         will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and
Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.      equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those
It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.       who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be
       But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One         content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as
hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the    usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the
manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hun-           Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will
dred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the       continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of
midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later,       justice emerges.
the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and                But there is something that I must say to my people who stand
finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today         on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the
to dramatize a shameful condition.                                           process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful
       In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a             deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from
check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent             the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever conduct our struggle
words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they          on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our crea-
were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall           tive protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we
heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as        must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul
white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty,      force.
                                                                                    The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro
and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has de-
                                                                             community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many
faulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are
                                                                             of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have
concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has
                                                                             come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they
given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back
                                                                             have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our
marked "insufficient funds."
                                                                             freedom. We cannot walk alone.
       But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We
                                                                                    And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always
refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of
                                                                             march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking
opportunity of this nation. And so we have come to cash this check, a
                                                                             the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never
check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the
                                                                             be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable hor-
security of justice.
                                                                             rors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bod-
       We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of          ies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels
the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of        of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as
cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the      long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York
time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise         believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied
from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of       and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and
racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of    righteousness like a mighty stream.

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