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MARTIN LUTHER KING RECEIVES THE
NOBEL PRIZE FOR PEACE - 1964
Acceptance Speech
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Your Majesty, Your
Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, |
Ladies and
Gentlemen:
I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment
when 22 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 on 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 seeking
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
sanctuary 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 a
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 era 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
super highway 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
mortar 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 good
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 many 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 Lutuli 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
headline 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.
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