While many have responded with shock and disgust at RNR’s usage of King’s quote, King notably spoke with hope in the face of what he called “white backlashing” in that same 1967 speech, saying that freedom was “the sacred heritage” of America.
It is this faith that led King to argue that not only was justice in America possible, but also unity.
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“With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discourse of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to speed up the day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and live together as brothers and sisters, all over this great nation,” King said. “That will be a great day, that will be a great tomorrow. In the words of the Scripture, to speak symbolically, that will be the day when the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy.”
Watch Martin Luther King Jr.’s “The Other America” speech in its entirety below.
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