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Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.
Address delivered in Acceptance of
Nobel Peace Prize
[10 December 1964, Oslo, Norway] |
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr.
President, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: I accept the Nobel Prize for
Peace at a moment when twenty-two million Negroes of the United States 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. 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, and to a movement which has
not yet 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 questions 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 peoples 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 torturous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama, to Oslo bears witness
to this truth, and this is a road over which millions of Negroes are traveling
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 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 "is-ness" of man's present nature
makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal
"ought-ness" that forever confronts him.
I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam 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 nuclear annihilation.
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 goodwill
proclaimed 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. 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
sacrifice the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of
these people will never make the headlines, and their names will never 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 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 truth is beauty, and beauty, truth, and in
whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than
diamonds or silver or gold. Thank you. [applause]
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