“Last Sunday, more than eight thousand of us started on a mighty walk from Selma, Alabama. We have walked through desolate valleys and across the trying hills. We have walked on meandering highways and rested our bodies on rocky byways. . . .”
“. . . From Montgomery to Birmingham, from Birmingham to Selma, from Selma back to Montgomery, a trail wound in a circle long and often bloody, yet it has become a highway up from darkness. . . .”
“. . . Our whole campaign in Alabama has been centered around the right to vote. In focusing the attention of the nation and the world today on the flagrant denial of the right to vote, we are exposing the very origin, the root cause, of racial segregation in the Southland. . . .”
“. . . The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us. We are on the move now. The beating and killing of our clergymen and young people will not divert us. We are on the move now. . . . Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom. . . .”
“. . . Let us march on ballot boxes, march on ballot boxes until race-baiters disappear from the political arena. . . Let us march on ballot boxes until brotherhood becomes more than a meaningless word in an opening prayer, but the order of the day on every legislative agenda. . .”
“. . . I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take?’ Somebody’s asking, ‘How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?’ I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’”
“How long? Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’”
—Public speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., March 25, 1965 at the steps of the State Capitol, Montgomery, Alabama