He Had A Dream

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.... The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. -- Martin Luther King, Strength to Love, 1963

Full text of the I Have A Dream speech at The Booman Tribune.

MLK photo essay at Slate.

MLK "Montgomery Story" comic book.

Audio and text of MLK's speech "Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence" over at American Rhetoric. Regrettably, forty years later, only the names have changed. Helena Cobban analyzes how the speech applies to Iraq.

Rarely seen MLK papers on display in Atlanta in honor of his birthday today. He would have been 78 years old.

Taylor Marsh writes how the fight for civil rights intertwined the fates of MLK and JFK.



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