Augustana
Lutheran
Church

l

In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Excerpts from his speech to the 11th annual convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
August 16, 1967 in Atlanta, Georgia
As read Sunday, January 15, 2012, by members of Augustana Lutheran Church, pictured above

". . . One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites, so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love. Now, we have got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best. . . is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.

". . . I'm concerned about a better world. I'm concerned about justice. I'm concerned about brotherhood. I'm concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate through violence. Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.

". . . Today we have a task, (so) let us go out with a divine dissatisfaction. . . Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity. Let us be dissatisfied until men and women, however black they may be, will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not on the basis of the color of their skin. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout, "White Power!" when nobody will shout, "Black Power!" but everybody will talk about God's power and human power.

". . . The road ahead will not always be smooth. There will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted. But difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future. . and with this faith we will be able to sing in some not too distant tomorrow, with a cosmic past tense, "We have overcome!  We have overcome! Deep in my heart, I did believe we would overcome."