○ we shall overcome ○
the issue of equal rights for american negroes is such an issue.
and should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. for with a country as with a person, "what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
there is no negro problem. there is no southern problem. there is no northern problem. there is only an american problem. and we are met here tonight as americans -- not as democrats or republicans. we are met here as americans to solve that problem.
this was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. the great phrases of that purpose still sound in every american heart, north and south: "all men are created equal," "government by consent of the governed," "give me liberty or give me death." well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. in their name americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.
those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. this dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. it really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. it says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being. to apply any other test -- to deny
