Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on 15 January 1929. He died, aged less than forty, assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on 4 April 1968.

In December 1955, at the age of twenty-six, on hearing that Rosa Parks, had been arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white, he leapt into the fray, armed by the memory of the Martin Luther who wrote these words which must have been familiar to Martin Luther King: "Would it not be against Nature if, a fire being declared, each citizen were to remain still and let the fire wreak its havoc, solely because he is not Mayor of the city?"

He was to be spared no form of attack. But nothing was able to break his resolve to build a new America, the land of the famous "dream" which he described on 28 August 1963. Martin Luther King's words on that day will remain forever etched in the memory of people in all corners of the world.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of true brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.