Godel and the End of the Universe In this talk, I want to ask how far we can go in our search

for understanding and knowledge. Will we ever find a complete form of the laws of nature? By a complete form, I mean a set of rules that in principle at least ena le us to predict the future to an ar itrary accuracy, knowing the state of the universe at one time. ! "ualitative understanding of the laws has een the aim of philosophers and scientists, from !ristotle onwards. But it was #ewton$s %rincipia &athematica in '()*, containing his theory of universal gravitation that made the laws "uantitative and precise. +his led to the idea of scientific determinism, which seems first to have een e,pressed y -aplace. If at one time, one knew the positions and velocities of all the particles in the universe, the laws of science should ena le us to calculate their positions and velocities at any other time, past or future. +he laws may or may not have een ordained y God, ut scientific determinism asserts that he does not intervene to reak them. !t first, it seemed that these hopes for a complete determinism would e dashed y the discovery early in the ./th century0 that events like the decay of radio active atoms seemed to take place at random. It was as if God was playing dice, in Einstein$s phrase. But science snatched victory from the 1aws of defeat y moving the goal posts and redefining what is meant y a complete knowledge of the universe. It was a stroke of rilliance whose philosophical implications have still not een fully appreciated. &uch of the credit elongs to %aul 2irac, my predecessor ut one in the -ucasian chair, though it wasn$t motori3ed in his time. 2irac showed how the work of Erwin 4chrodinger and Werner 5eisen erg could e com ined in new picture of reality, called "uantum theory. In "uantum theory, a particle is not characteri3ed y two "uantities, its position and its velocity, as in classical #ewtonian theory. Instead it is descri ed y a single "uantity, the wave function. +he si3e of the wave function at a point, gives the pro a ility that the particle will e found at that point, and the rate at which the wave function changes from point to point, gives the pro a ility of different velocities. 6ne can have a wave function that is sharply peaked at a point. +his corresponds to a state in which there is little uncertainty in the position of the particle. 5owever, the wave function varies rapidly, so there is a lot of uncertainty in the velocity. 4imilarly, a long chain of waves has a large uncertainty in position, ut a small uncertainty in velocity. 6ne can have a well defined position, or a well defined velocity, ut not oth. +his would seem to make complete determinism impossi le. If one can$t accurately define oth the positions and the velocities of particles at one time, how can one predict what they will e in the future? It is like weather forecasting. +he forecasters don$t have an accurate knowledge of the atmosphere at one time. 7ust a few measurements at ground level and what can e learnt from satellite photographs. +hat8s why weather forecasts are so unrelia le. 5owever, in "uantum theory, it turns out one doesn$t need to know oth the positions and the velocities. If one knew the laws of physics and the wave function at one time, then something called the 4chrodinger e"uation would tell one how fast the wave function was changing with time. +his would allow one to calculate the wave function at any other time. 6ne can therefore claim that there is still determinism ut it is determinism on a reduced level. Instead of eing a le accurately to predict two "uantities, position and velocity, one can predict only a single "uantity, the wave function. We have re9defined determinism to e 1ust half of what -aplace thought it was. 4ome people have tried to connect the unpredicta ility of the other half with consciousness, or the intervention of supernatural eings. But it is difficult to make either case for something that is completely random. In order to calculate how the wave function develops in time, one needs the "uantum laws that govern the universe. 4o how well do we know these laws? !s 2irac remarked, &a,well$s e"uations of light and the relativistic wave e"uation, which he was too modest to call the 2irac e"uation, govern most of physics and all of chemistry and iology. 4o in principle, we ought to e a le to predict human ehavior, though I can$t say I have had much success myself. +he trou le is that the human rain contains far too many particles for us to e a le to solve the e"uations. But it is comforting to think we might e a le to predict the nematode worm, even if we can$t "uite figure out humans. :uantum theory and the &a,well and 2irac e"uations indeed govern much of our life, ut there are two important areas eyond their scope. 1

6ne is the nuclear forces. +he other is gravity. +he nuclear forces are responsi le for the 4un shining and the formation of the elements including the car on and o,ygen of which we are made. !nd gravity caused the formation of stars and planets, and indeed, of the universe itself. 4o it is important to ring them into the scheme. +he so called weak nuclear forces have een unified with the &a,well e"uations y ! dus 4alam and 4tephen Wein erg, in what is known as the Electro weak theory. +he predictions of this theory have een confirmed y e,periment and the authors rewarded with #o el %ri3es. +he remaining nuclear forces, the so called strong forces, have not yet een successfully unified with the electro weak forces in an o servationally tested scheme. Instead, they seem to e descri ed y a similar ut separate theory called :;2. It is not clear who, if anyone, should get a #o el %ri3e for :;2, ut 2avid Gross and Gerard <t 5ooft share credit for showing the theory gets simpler at high energies. I had "uite a 1o to get my speech synthesi3er to pronounce Gerard$s surname. It wasn$t familiar with apostrophe t. +he electro weak theory and :;2 together constitute the so called 4tandard &odel of particle physics, which aims to descri e everything e,cept gravity. +he standard model seems to e ade"uate for all practical purposes, at least for the ne,t hundred years. But practical or economic reasons have never een the driving force in our search for a complete theory of the universe. #o one working on the asic theory, from Galileo onward, has carried out their research to make money, though 2irac would have made a fortune if he had patented the 2irac e"uation. 5e would have had a royalty on every television, walkman, video game and computer. +he real reason we are seeking a complete theory, is that we want to understand the universe and feel we are not 1ust the victims of dark and mysterious forces. If we understand the universe, then we control it, in a sense. +he standard model is clearly unsatisfactory in this respect. =irst of all, it is ugly and ad hoc. +he particles are grouped in an apparently ar itrary way, and the standard model depends on .> num ers whose values can not e deduced from first principles, ut which have to e chosen to fit the o servations. What understanding is there in that? ;an it e #ature$s last word? +he second failing of the standard model is that it does not include gravity. Instead, gravity has to e descri ed y Einstein$s General +heory of ?elativity. General relativity is not a "uantum theory unlike the laws that govern everything else in the universe. !lthough it is not consistent to use the non "uantum general relativity with the "uantum standard model, this has no practical significance at the present stage of the universe ecause gravitational fields are so weak. 5owever, in the very early universe, gravitational fields would have een much stronger and "uantum gravity would have een significant. Indeed, we have evidence that "uantum uncertainty in the early universe made some regions slightly more or less dense than the otherwise uniform ackground. We can see this in small differences in the ackground of microwave radiation from different directions. +he hotter, denser regions will condense out of the e,pansion as gala,ies, stars and planets. !ll the structures in the universe, including ourselves, can e traced ack to "uantum effects in the very early stages. It is therefore essential to have a fully consistent "uantum theory of gravity, if we are to understand the universe. ;onstructing a "uantum theory of gravity has een the outstanding pro lem in theoretical physics for the last @/ years. It is much, much more difficult than the "uantum theories of the strong and electro weak forces. +hese propagate in a fi,ed ackground of space and time. 6ne can define the wave function and use the 4chrodinger e"uation to evolve it in time. But according to general relativity, gravity is space and time. 4o how can the wave function for gravity evolve in time? !nd anyway, what does one mean y the wave function for gravity? It turns out that, in a formal sense, one can define a wave function and a 4chrodinger like e"uation for gravity, ut that they are of little use in actual calculations. Instead, the usual approach is to regard the "uantum spacetime as a small pertur ation of some ackground spacetime0 generally flat space. +he pertur ations can then e treated as "uantum fields, like 2

the electro weak and :;2 fields, propagating through the ackground spacetime. In calculations of pertur ations, there is generally some "uantity called the effective coupling which measures how much of an e,tra pertur ation a given pertur ation generates. If the coupling is small, a small pertur ation creates a smaller correction which gives an even smaller second correction, and so on. %ertur ation theory works and can e used to calculate to any degree of accuracy. !n e,ample is your ank account. +he interest on the account is a small pertur ation. ! very small pertur ation if you are with one of the ig anks. +he interest is compound. +hat is, there is interest on the interest, and interest on the interest on the interest. 5owever, the amounts are tiny. +o a good appro,imation, the money in your account is what you put there. 6n the other hand, if the coupling is high, a pertur ation generates a larger pertur ation which then generates an even larger pertur ation. !n e,ample would e orrowing money from loan sharks. +he interest can e more than you orrowed, and then you pay interest on that. It is disastrous. With gravity, the effective coupling is the energy or mass of the pertur ation ecause this determines how much it warps space9time, and so creates a further pertur ation. 5owever, in "uantum theory, "uantities like the electric field or the geometry of space9time don$t have definite values, ut have what are called "uantum fluctuations. +hese fluctuations have energy. In fact, they have an infinite amount of energy ecause there are fluctuations on all length scales, no matter how small. +hus treating "uantum gravity as a pertur ation of flat space doesn$t work well ecause the pertur ations are strongly coupled. 4upergravity was invented in 'A*( to solve, or at least improve, the energy pro lem. It is a com ination of general relativity with other fields, such that each species of particle has a super partner species. +he energy of the "uantum fluctuations of one partner is positive, and the other negative, so they tend to cancel. It was hoped the infinite positive and negative energies would cancel completely, leaving only a finite remainder. In this case, a pertur ation treatment would work ecause the effective coupling would e weak. 5owever, in 'A)B, people suddenly lost confidence that the infinities would cancel. +his was not ecause anyone had shown that they definitely didn$t cancel. It was reckoned it would take a good graduate student @// years to do the calculation, and how would one know they hadn$t made a mistake on page two? ?ather it was ecause Ed Witten declared that string theory was the true "uantum theory of gravity, and supergravity was 1ust an appro,imation, valid when particle energies are low, which in practice, they always are. In string theory, gravity is not thought of as the warping of spacetime. Instead, it is given y string diagrams0 networks of pipes that represent little loops of string, propagating through flat spacetime. +he effective coupling that gives the strength of the 1unctions where three pipes meet is not the energy, as it is in supergravity. Instead it is given y what is called the dilaton0 a field that has not een o served. If the dilaton had a low value, the effective coupling would e weak, and string theory would e a good "uantum theory. But it is no earthly use for practical purposes. In the years since 'A)B, we have reali3ed that oth supergravity and string theory elong to a larger structure, known as & theory. Why it should e called & +heory is completely o scure. & theory is not a theory in the usual sense. ?ather it is a collection of theories that look very different ut which descri e the same physical situation. +hese theories are related y mappings or correspondences called dualities, which imply that they are all reflections of the same underlying theory. Each theory in the collection works well in the limit, like low energy, or low dilaton, in which its effective coupling is small, ut reaks down when the coupling is large. +his means that none of the theories can predict the future of the universe to ar itrary accuracy. =or that, one would need a single formulation of &9theory that would work in all situations. Up to now, most people have implicitly assumed that there is an ultimate theory that we will eventually discover. Indeed, I myself have suggested we might find it "uite soon. 5owever, &9theory has made me wonder if this is true. &ay e it is not possi le to formulate the theory of the universe in a finite num er of statements. +his is very reminiscent of Godel$s theorem. +his says that any finite system of a,ioms is not sufficient to prove every result in mathematics. 3

Godel$s theorem is proved using statements that refer to themselves. 4uch statements can lead to parado,es. !n e,ample is, this statement is false. If the statement is true, it is false. !nd if the statement is false, it is true. !nother e,ample is, the ar er of ;orfu shaves every man who does not shave himself. Who shaves the ar er? If he shaves himself, then he doesn$t, and if he doesn$t, then he does. Godel went to great lengths to avoid such parado,es y carefully distinguishing etween mathematics, like .C. D>, and meta mathematics, or statements a out mathematics, such as mathematics is cool, or mathematics is consistent. +hat is why his paper is so difficult to read. But the idea is "uite simple. =irst Godel showed that each mathematical formula, like .C.D>, can e given a uni"ue num er, the Godel num er. +he Godel num er of .C.D>, is E. 4econd, the meta mathematical statement, the se"uence of formulas !, is a proof of the formula B, can e e,pressed as an arithmetical relation etween the Godel num ers for !9 and B. +hus meta mathematics can e mapped into arithmetic, though I$m not sure how you translate the meta mathematical statement, $mathematics is cool$. +hird and last, consider the self referring Godel statement, G. +his is, the statement G can not e demonstrated from the a,ioms of mathematics. 4uppose that G could e demonstrated. +hen the a,ioms must e inconsistent ecause one could oth demonstrate G and show that it can not e demonstrated. 6n the other hand, if G can$t e demonstrated, then G is true. By the mapping into num ers, it corresponds to a true relation etween num ers, ut one which can not e deduced from the a,ioms. +hus mathematics is either inconsistent or incomplete. +he smart money is on incomplete. What is the relation etween Godel8s theorem and whether we can formulate the theory of the universe in terms of a finite num er of principles? 6ne connection is o vious. !ccording to the positivist philosophy of science, a physical theory is a mathematical model. 4o if there are mathematical results that can not e proved, there are physical pro lems that can not e predicted. 6ne e,ample might e the Gold ach con1ecture. Given an even num er of wood locks, can you always divide them into two piles, each of which can not e arranged in a rectangle? +hat is, it contains a prime num er of locks. !lthough this is incompleteness of sort, it is not the kind of unpredicta ility I mean. Given a specific num er of locks, one can determine with a finite num er of trials whether they can e divided into two primes. But I think that "uantum theory and gravity together, introduces a new element into the discussion that wasn$t present with classical #ewtonian theory. In the standard positivist approach to the philosophy of science, physical theories live rent free in a %latonic heaven of ideal mathematical models. +hat is, a model can e ar itrarily detailed and can contain an ar itrary amount of information without affecting the universes they descri e. But we are not angels, who view the universe from the outside. Instead, we and our models are oth part of the universe we are descri ing. +hus a physical theory is self referencing, like in Godel8s theorem. 6ne might therefore e,pect it to e either inconsistent or incomplete. +he theories we have so far are oth inconsistent and incomplete. :uantum gravity is essential to the argument. +he information in the model can e represented y an arrangement of particles. !ccording to "uantum theory, a particle in a region of a given si3e has a certain minimum amount of energy. +hus, as I said earlier, models don$t live rent free. +hey cost energy. By Einstein8s famous e"uation, E D mc s"uared, energy is e"uivalent to mass. !nd mass causes systems to collapse under gravity. It is like getting too many ooks together in a li rary. +he floor would give way and create a lack hole that would swallow the information. ?emarka ly enough, 7aco Bekenstein and I found that the amount of information in a lack hole is proportional to the area of the oundary of the hole, rather than the volume of the hole, as one might have e,pected. +he lack hole limit on the concentration of information is fundamental, ut it has not een properly incorporated into any of the formulations of & theory that we have so far. +hey all assume that one can define the wave function at each point of space. But that would e an infinite density of information which is not allowed. 6n the other hand, if one can$t define the wave function point wise, one can$t predict the future to ar itrary accuracy, even in the reduced determinism of "uantum theory. What we need is a formulation of & 4

theory that takes account of the lack hole information limit. But then our e,perience with supergravity and string theory, and the analogy of Godel8s theorem, suggest that even this formulation will e incomplete. 4ome people will e very disappointed if there is not an ultimate theory that can e formulated as a finite num er of principles. I used to elong to that camp, ut I have changed my mind. I$m now glad that our search for understanding will never come to an end, and that we will always have the challenge of new discovery. Without it, we would stagnate. Godel8s theorem ensured there would always e a 1o for mathematicians. I think & theory will do the same for physicists. I$m sure 2irac would have approved. &y Brief 5istory I was orn on 7anuary )th, 'A>., e,actly three hundred years after the death of Galeelaeo.5owever, I estimate that a out two hundred thousand other a ies were also orn that day. I don$t know whether any of them were later interested in astronomy. I was orn in 6,ford, even though my parents were living in -ondon.+his was ecause 6,ford was a good place to e orn, during World War .. +he Germans had an agreement that they would not om 6,ford and ;am ridge, in return for the British not om ing 5eidel erg and FGot inggenG. &y father came from Horkshire.5is grandfather, my great9grandfather, had een a wealthy farmer.5e had ought too many farms and had gone ankrupt in the agricultural depression at the eginning of this century. +his left my father$s parents adly off, ut they managed to send him to 6,ford, where he studied medicine. 5e then went into research in tropical medicine.5e went out to East !frica in 'A@*.When the war egan, he made an over land 1ourney across !frica to get a ship ack to England, where he volunteered for military service. 5e was told, however, that he was more valua le in medical research... &y mother was orn in Glasgow, 4cotland, the second child of seven of a family doctor. +he family moved south to 2evon when she was twelve. -ike my father$s family, hers was not well off. #evertheless, they managed to send my mother to 6,ford. !fter 6,ford, she had various 1o s, including that of inspector of ta,es, which she did not like. 4he gave that up to ecome a secretary. +hat was how she met my father in the early years of the war... !t that time, during and 1ust after the war, we lived in 5ighgate, -ondon, an area in which a num er of scientific and academic people also lived. In another country they would have een called intellectuals, ut the English have never admitted to having any intellectuals. &y first school was called Byron 5ouse 4chool. It was a very progressive school, for those times. I remem er complaining to my parents that they weren$t teaching me anything. +hey didn$t elieve in what was then the accepted way of drilling things Finto you. Instead, you were supposed to learn to read without reali3ing you were eing taught. In the end, I Fdid learn to read, ut not until the fairly late age of eight. &y sister %hil Ippa was taught to read y more conventional methods, and could read y the age of four. But then, she was definitely righter than me... We lived in a tall, narrow Iictorian house, which my parents had ought very cheaply during the war, when everyone thought -ondon was going to e om ed flat. In fact, a I. rocket landed a few houses away from ours. I was away with my mother and sister at the time, ut my father was in the house. 5

=ortunately, he was not hurt, and the house was not adly damaged. But for years, there was a large om site down the road, on which I used to play with friend 5oward, who lived three doors the other way. 5oward was a revelation to me, ecause his parents weren$t intellectuals, like the parents of all the other children I knew. 5e went to the council school, not Byron 5ouse, and he knew a out foot all and o,ing, sports that my parents wouldn$t have dreamed of following... !nother early memory was getting my first train set. +oys were not manufactured during the war, at least not for the home market. But I had a passionate interest in model trains. &y father tried making me a wooden train, ut that didn$t satisfy me, as I wanted something that worked. 4o my father got a secondhand clockwork train, repaired it with a soldering iron, and gave it to me for ;hristmas when I was nearly three. +hat train didn$t work very well either. But my father went to !merica 1ust after the war, and when he came ack on the :ueen &ary, he rought my mother some nylons, which were not o taina le in Britain at that time. 5e rought my sister &ary a doll that closed its eyes when you laid it down. !nd he rought me an !merican train, complete with a cow catcher and a figure9eight track. I can still remem er my e,citement as I opened the o,... -ater on, in my teens, I uilt model airplanes and oats. I was never very good with my hands, ut I did this with my school friend 7ohn &c;lenahan, who was much etter, and whose father had a workshop in their house. &y aim was always to uild working models that I could control. I didn$t care what they looked like. I think it was the same drive that led me to invent a series of very complicated games with another school friend, ?oger =erneyhow. +here was a manufacturing game, complete with factories in which units of different colors were made, roads and railways on which they were carried, and a stock market. +here was a war game, played on a oard of four thousand s"uares, and even a feudal game, in which each player was a whole dynasty, with a family tree. I think these games, as well as the trains, oats, and airplanes, came from an urge to know how things worked and to control them. 4ince I egan my %52, this need has een met y my research into cosmology. If you understand how the universe operates, you control it, in a way... When we first came to 4aint 6l ans, I was sent to the 5igh 4chool for Girls, which despite its name took oys up to the age of ten. !fter I had een there one term, however, my father took one of his almost yearly visits to !frica, this time for a rather longer period of a out four months. &y mother didn$t feel like eing left all that time, so she took my two sisters and me to visit her school friend Beryl, who was married to the poet ?o ert Graves. +hey lived in a village called 2eya, on the 4panish island of &ayorca. +his was only five years after the war, and 4pain$s dictator, =rancisco =ranco, who had een an ally of 5itler and &ussolini, was still in power. JIn fact, he remained in power for another two decades.K #evertheless, my mother, who had een a mem er of the Houng ;ommunist -eague efore the war, went with three young children y oat and train to &ayorca. We rented a house in 2eya, and had a wonderful time. I shared a tutor with ?o ert$s son, William. +his tutor was a protta 1ay of ?o ert, and was more interested in writing a play for the Eddin ur festival, than in teaching us. 5e therefore set us to read a chapter of the Bi le each day and write a piece on it. +he idea was to teach us the eauty of the English language. We got through all of Genesis and part of E,o dus efore I left. 6ne of the main things I was taught from this, was not to egin a sentence with !nd. I pointed out that most sentences in the Bi le egan with !nd, ut I was told that English had changed since the time of Ling 7ames. In that case, I argued, why make us read the Bi le? But it was in vain. ?o ert Graves was very keen on the sym olism and mysticism in the Bi le at that time... 6

!t school, I was never more than a out halfway up the class. It was a very right class. &y classwork was very untidy, and my handwriting was the despair of my teachers. But my classmates gave me the nickname Einstein, so presuma ly they saw signs of something etter. When I was twelve, one of my friends et another friend a ag of sweets that I would never come to anything. I don$t know if this et was ever settled, and if so, which way it was decided... When I came to the last two years of school, I wanted to speciali3e in mathematics and physics. +here was an inspirational maths teacher, &r. +ahta, and the school had 1ust uilt a new maths room, which the maths set had as their classroom. But my father was very much against it. 5e thought there wouldn$t e any 1o s for mathmaticians, e,cept as teachers. 5e would really have liked me to do medicine, ut I showed no interest in iology, which seemed to me to e too descriptive and not sufficiently fundamental. It also had a rather low status at school. +he rightest oys did mathematics and physics0 the less right did iology. &y father knew I wouldn$t do iology, ut he made me do chemistry and only a small amount of mathematics. 5e felt this would keep my scientific options open. I$m now a professor of mathematics, ut I have not had any formal instruction in mathematics since I left 4aint 6l ans 4chool at the age of seventeen. I have had to pick up what mathematics I know as I went along. I used to supervise undergraduates at ;am ridge, and keep one week ahead of them in the course... &y father was engaged in research in tropical diseases, and he used to take me around his la oratory in &ill 5ill. I en1oyed this, especially looking through microscopes. 5e also used to take me into the insect house, where he kept mos"uitoes infected with tropical diseases. +his worried me, ecause there always seemed to e a few mos"uitoes flying around loose. 5e was very hard9working and dedicated to his research. 5e had a it of a chip on his shoulder ecause he felt that other people who were not so good ut who had the right ackground and connections had gotten ahead of him. 5e used to warn me against such people. But I think physics is a it different from medicine. It doesn$t matter what school you went to, or to whom you are related. It matters what you do... &y father was very keen that I should go to 6,ford or ;am ridge. 5e himself had gone to University ;ollege, 6,ford, so he thought I should apply there, ecause I would have a greater chance of getting in. !t that time, University ;ollege had no fellow in mathematics, which was another reason he wanted me to do chemistry. I could try for a scholarship in natural science rather than in mathematics... +he rest of the family went to Inn dia for a year, ut I had to stay ehind to do ! levels and university entrance. &y head master thought I was much too young to try for 6,ford, ut I went up in &arch 'ABA to do the scholarship ek sam with two oys from the year a ove me at school. I was convinced I had done adly and was very depressed when during the practical e,am university lecturers came around to talk to other people ut not to me. +hen, a few days after I got ack from 6,ford, I got a telegram to say I had a scholarship... I was seven teen, and most of the other students in my year had done military service, and were a lot older. I felt rather lonely during my first year and part of the second. It was only in my third year that I really felt happy there. +he prevailing attitude at 6,ford at that time was very anti work. Hou were supposed to e rilliant without effort, or to accept your limitations and get a fourth9class degree. +o work hard to get a etter class of degree was regarded as the mark of a gray man, the worst epithet in the 6,ford voca ulary... !t that time, the physics course at 6,ford was arranged in a way that made it particularly easy to avoid work. I did one ek sam efore I went up, then had three years at 6,ford with 1ust the final ek sams at the end. I once calculated that I did a out a thousand hours$ work in the three years I was there, an average of an hour a day. I$m not proud of this lack of work. I$m 1ust descri ing my attitude at the time, which I shared with most of my fellow studentsM an attitude of complete ordom and feeling that nothing was worth making an effort for. 6ne result of my illness has een to change all thatM When you are faced with the possi ility of an early death, it makes you reali3e that life is worth living, and that there are lots of 7

things you want to do... Because of my lack of work, I had planned to get through the final ek sam y doing pro lems in theoretical physics and avoiding "uestions that re"uired factual knowledge. I didn$t sleep the night efore the ek sam ecause of nervous tension, however, so I didn$t do very well. I was on the orderline etween a first9 and second class degree, and I had to e interviewed y the e,aminers to determine which I should get. In the interview they asked me a out my future plans. I replied that I wanted to do research. If they gave me a first, I would go to ;am ridge. If I only got a second, I would stay in 6,ford. +hey gave me a first... I was always very interested in how things operated, and used to take them apart to see how they worked, ut I was not so good at putting them ack together again. &y ractical a ilities never matched up to my theoretical en"uiries. &y father encouraged my interest in science, and he even coached me in mathematics, until I got to a stage eyond his knowledge. With this ackground, and my father$s 1o , I took it as natural that I would go into scientific research. In my early years, I didn$t differentiate etween one kind of science and another. But from the age of thirteen or fourteen, I knew I wanted to do research in physics ecause it was the most fundamental science. +his was despite the fact that physics was the most oring su 1ect at school, ecause it was so easy and o vious. ;hemistry was much more fun, ecause une,pected things, like e,plosions, kept happening. But physics and astronomy offered the hope of understanding where we came from, and why we were here. I wanted to fathom the far depths of the universe. &ay e I have succeeded to a small e,tent, ut there$s still plenty I want to know... I arrived in ;am ridge at 2!&+%, the department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics. I had applied to work with =red 5oyle, the principal defender of the steady state theory, and the most famous British astronomer of the time. I say astronomer, ecause cosmology was at that time, hardly recogni3ed as a legitimate field, yet that was where I wanted to do my research, inspired y having een on a summer course with 5oyle$s student, 7ayant #arlikar. 5owever, 5oyle had enough students already, so to my great disappointment, I was asigned to 2ennis sharma, of whom I had not heard. But it was pro a ly for the est.56yle was away a lot, seldom in the department, and I wouldn$t have had much of his attention. 4harma, on the other hand, was usually around, and ready to talk.I didn$t agree with many of his ideas, particularly on &ach$s principle, ut that stimulated me to develop my own picture... When I egan research, the two areas that seemed e,citing, were cosmology, and elementary particle physics. Elementary particles was the active, rapidly changing field, that attracted most of the est minds, while cosmology and general relativity, were stuck where they had een in the 'A@/s. +he famous physicist, ?ichard =einman, has given an amusing account of attending the conference on general relativity and gravitation, in Warsaw in 'A(.. In a letter to his wife, he said. $I am not getting anything out of the meeting.I am learning nothing. Because there are no e,periments, this field is not an active one, so few of the est men are doing work in it. +he result is that there are hosts of dopes here, '.(, and it is not good for my lood pressure. ?emind me not to come to any more gravity conferences... I hadn$t done much mathematics in the very easy physics course at 6,ford, so 4harma suggested I work on astrophysics. But having een cheated out of working with 5oyle, I wasn$t going to do something oring like =araday rotation.I had come to ;am ridge to do cosmology, and cosmology I was determined to do. 4o I red old te,t ooks on general relativity, and traveled up to lectures at Lings ;ollege, -ondon each week, with three other students of 4harma. I followed the words and e"uations, ut I didn$t really get a feel for the su 1ect.a-so, I had een diagnosed with motor neurone disease, or !-4, and given to e,pect I didn$t have long enough to finish my %h2. t5en suddenly, towards the end of my second year of 8

research, things picked up.mH disease wasn$t progressing much, and my work all fell into place, and I egan to get somewhere... 4harma was very keen on &ach$s principle, the idea that o 1ects owe their inertia, to the influence of all the other matter in the universe. 5e tried to get me to work on this, ut I felt his formulations of &ach$s principle, were not well defined. 5owever, he introduced me to something a it similar with regard to light, the so called Wheeler =einman electro dynamics. +his said that electricity and magnetism, were time symmetric. 5owever, when one switched on a lamp, it was the influence of all the other matter in the universe, that caused light waves to travel outward from the lamp, rather than come in from infinity, and end on the lamp. =or Wheeler =einman electro dynamics to work, it was necessary that all the light traveling out from the lamp, should e a sor ed y other matter in the universe. +his would happen in a steady state universe, in which the density of matter would remain constant, ut not in a ig ang universe, where the density would go down as the universe e,panded. It was claimed that this was another proof, if proof were needed, that we live in a steady state universe. +here was a conference on Wheeler =einman electro dynamics and the arrow of time, in ;ornell in 'A(@. =einman was so disgusted y the nonsense that was talked a out the arrow of time, that he refused to let his name appear in the proceedings.hE was referred to as &r N, ut everyone knew who N was... +he ig "uestion in cosmology in the early (/s, was, did the universe have a egining. &any scientists were instinctively opposed to the idea, ecause they felt that a point of creation, would e a place where science roke down. 6ne would have to appeal to religion and the hand of God, to determine how the universe would start off. +wo alternative scenarios were therefore put forward 6ne was the steady state theory, in which as the universe e,panded, new matter was continually created to keep the density constant on average. +he steady state theory was never on a very strong theoretical asis, ecause it re"uired a negative energy field to create the matter. +his would have made it unsta le, to run away production of matter and negative energy. But it had the great merit as a scientific theory, of making definite predictions that could e tested y o servations. By the time I egan my research, the steady state theory was already in trou le.&!rtin ?yle$s radio astronomy group at the ;avendish did a survey of faint radio sources. +hey found the sources were distri uted fairly uniformly across the sky. +his indicated that they were pro a ly outside our gala,y, ecause otherwise they would e concentrated along the &ilky Way. But the graph of the num er of sources against source strength, did not agree with the prediction of the steady state theory.t5ere were too many faint sources, indicating that the density of sources was higher in the distant past. 5oyle and his supporters, put forward increasingly contrived e,planations of the o servations, ut the final nail in the coffin of the steady state theory, came with the discovery of a faint ackground of microwave radiation. +his could not e accounted for in the steady state theory, though 5oyle and #arlikar tried desperately. It was 1ust as well I hadn$t een a student of 5oyle, ecause I would have had to have defended the steady state... +he microwave ackground, indicated that the universe had had a hot dense stage, in the past. Ut it didn$t prove that was the egining of the universe. 6ne might imagine that the universe had had a previous contracting phase, and that it had ounced from contraction to e,pansion, at a high, ut finite 9

density. +his was clearly a fundamental "uestion, and it was 1ust what I needed to complete my %h2 thesis... Gravity pulls matter together, ut rotation throws it apart.s6 my first "uestion was, could rotation cause the universe to ounce. +ogether with George Ellis, I was a le to show that the answer was no, if the universe was spatially homogeneous, that is, if it was the same at each point of space. 5owever, two ?ussians, -ifshit3 and Lhalatnikov, had claimed to have proved that a general contraction without e,act symmetry, would always lead to a ounce, with the density remaining finite. +his result was very convenient for &ar,ist -eninist dialectical materialism, ecause it avoided awkward "uestions a out the creation of the universe.i+ therefore ecame an article of faith for 4oviet scientists... -ifshit3 and Lhalatnikov were mem ers of the old school in general relativity.t5at is, they wrote down a massive system of e"uations, and tried to guess a solution. Ut it wasn$t clear that the solution they found, was the most general one. ! new approach was introduced y ?oger %enrose, which didn$t re"uire solving the field e"uations e,plicitly, 1ust certain general properties, such as that energy is positive, and gravity is attractive. %enrose gave a seminar in Lings ;ollege, -ondon, in 7anuary 'A(B.I wasn$t at the seminar, ut I heard a out it from Brandon ;arter, with whom I shared an office in the then new 2!&+% premises in silver street. !t first, I couldn$t understand what the point was.%Enrose had showed that once a dieing star had contracted to a certain radius, there would inevita ly e a singularity, a point where space and time came to an end. 4urely, I thought, we already knew that nothing could prevent a massive cold star, collapsing under its own gravity until it reached a singularity of infinite density. But in fact, the e"uations had een solved, only for the collapse of a perfectly spherical star. 6f course, a real star won$t e e,actly spherical. i= -ifshit3 and Lalatnikov were right, the departures from spherical symmetry would grow as the star collapsed, and would cause different parts of the star to miss each other, and avoid a singularity of infinite density. But %enrose showed they were wrong.s&all departures from spherical symmetry, will not prevent a singularity... I reali3ed that similar arguments could e applied to the e,pansion of the universe. In this case, I could prove there were singularities where spacetime had a egining. 4o again, -ifshit3 and Lhalatnikov were wrong.gEneral relativity predicted that the universe should have a egining, a result that did not pass unnoticed y the ;hurch... In the first few years of my research, my main interest was in the ig ang singularity of cosmology, rather than the singularities that %enrose had shown would occur in collapsing stars. But a it later, Werner Israel, produced an important result.hE showed that unless the remnant from a collapsing star was e,actly spherical, the singularity it contained would e naked, that is, it would e visi le to outside o servers. +his would have meant that the reak down of general relativity at the singularity of a collapsing star, would destroy our a ility to predict the future of the rest of the universe... !t first, most people, including Israel himself, thought that this implied that ecause real stars aren$t spherical, their collapse would give rise to naked singularities, and reak down of predicta ility. But a different interpretation was put forward y ?oger %enrose and 7ohn Wheeler. It was that there is ;osmic ;ensorship.t5is says that #ature is a prude, and hides singularities in lack holes, where they can$t e seen. I used to have a umper sticker, lack holes are out of sight, on the door of my office... &y work on lack holes egan with a Eureka moment a few days after the irth of my daughter, -ucy. While getting into ed, I reali3ed that I could apply to lack holes, the causal structure theory I had developed for singularity theorems. In particular, the area of the 10

hori3on, the oundary of the lack hole, would always increase.w5en two lack holes collide and merge, the area of the final lack hole, is greater than the sum of the areas of the original holes. +his suggested that the area was like what is called, the entropy of a lack hole. It would e a measure of how many states a lack hole could have on the inside, for the same appearance on the outside. But the area couldn$t actually F e the entropy, ecause as everyone knew, lack holes were completely lack, and couldn$t e in e"uili rium with thermal radiation... +here was a Golden !ge. in which we solved most of the ma1or pro lems in lack hole theory. +his was efore there was any o servational evidence for lack holes, which shows =einman was wrong when he said an active field has to e e,perimentally driven. +he one pro lem that was never solved, was to prove the ;osmic ;ensorship hypothesis, though a num er of attempts to disprove it, failed. It is fundamental to all work on lack holes, so I have a strong vested interest in it eing true. I therefore have a et with Lip +horne and 7ohn %reskill.i+ is difficult for me to win this et, ut "uite possi le to lose, y finding a counter e,ample with a naked singularity. i# fact, I have already lost an earlier version of the et, y not eing careful enough a out the wording.t5ey were not amused y the t9shirt I offered in settlement... We were so successful with the classical general theory of relativity, that I was at a it of a loose end iafter the pu lication with George Ellis, of our ook, +he -arge 4cale 4tructure 6f 4pacetime. &y work with %enrose, had shown that general relativity roke down at singularities.s6 the o vious ne,t step, would e to com ine general relativity, the theory of the very large, with "uantum theory, the theory of the very small. I had no ackground in "uantum theory, and the singularity pro lem seemed too difficult for a frontal assault at that time. 4o as a warm up e,ercise, I considered how particles and fields governed y "uantum theory, would ehave near a lack hole. In particular, I wondered, can one have atoms, in which the nucleus is a tiny primordial lack hole, formed in the early universe.+o answer this, I studied how "uantum fields would scatter off a lack hole.I was e,pecting that part of an incident wave would e a sor ed, and the remainder scattered. Ut to my great surprise, I found there seemed to e emission from the lack hole. !t first, I thought this must e a mistake in my calculation. Ut what persuaded me that it was real, was that the emission was e,actly what was re"uired, to identify the area of the hori3on, with the entropy of a lack hole. It is summed up in this simple formula, which e,presses the entropy, in terms of the area of the hori3on. and the three fundamental constants of nature, c, the speed of light, G, #ewton$s constant of gravitation, and h ar, %lancks constant. I$m proud to have discovered it... +he ?adiation from a lack hole , will carry away energy, so the lack hole will lose mass, and shrink. Eventually, it seems the lack hole will evaporate completely, and disappear. +his raised a pro lem that struck at the heart of physics. &y calculation showed that the radiation was e,actly thermal and random, as it has to e, if the area of the hori3on, is to e the entropy of the lack hole. 4o how could the radiation left over, carry all the information a out what made the lack hole. But if information is lost, this is incompati le with "uantum mechanics. +his parado, had een argued for thirty years, without much progress, until I found what I think is its resolution. Information is ot lost, ut it is not returned in a useful way. It is like urning an encyclopedia. Information is not lost, ut it is very hard to read. In fact, Lip +horne and I, had a et with 7ohn %reskill on the information parado,. I gave 7ohn a ase all encyclopedia. &ay e I should have 1ust given him the ashes... I had een working mainly on lack lack holes, ut my interest in cosmology was renewed y the suggestions that the early universe had gone through a period of inflationary e,pansion, in which its si3e grew at an ever increasing rate, like the way prices go up in the shops. Euclidean methods, were the o vious way to descri e fluctuations and phase transitions, in an inflationary universe. We held a #uffield work shop in ;am ridge, attended y all the ma1or players in the field. !t this meeting, we esta lished most of our present picture of inflation, including the all important density fluctuations, 11

which give rise to gala,y formation, and so to our e,istence. +his was ten years efore fluctuations in the microwave were o served, so again in gravity, theory was ahead of e,periment... +he original scenario for inflation, was that the universe egan with a ig ang singularity.a4 the universe e,panded, it was supposed somehow to get into an inflationary state. I thought this was unsatisfactory, ecause all e"uations would reak down at a singularity. But unless one knew what came out of the initial singularity, one could not calculate how the universe would develop.c6smology would not have any predictive power. What was needed was a space time a without singularity, like in the Euclidean version of a lack hole... !fter the work shop in ;am ridge, I spent the summer at the Institute of +heoretical %hysics, 4anta Bar ara, which had 1ust een set up.I talked to 7im 5artle, a out how to apply the Euclidean approach to cosmology. !ccording to the Euclidean approach, the wave function of the universe, is given y a =einman sum over a certain class of histories in imaginary time. Because imaginary time ehaves like another direction in space, histories in imaginary time can e closed surfaces, like the surface of the Earth, with no egining or end. 7im and I decided that this was the most natural choice of class, indeed the Fonly natural choice.We formulated the no oundary proposalM the oundary condition of the universe, is that it has no oundary. We had side stepped the scientific and philosophical difficulty of time having a egining, y turning it into a direction in space... +he no oundary condition implies that the universe will e spontaneously created out of nothing. It will start out almost completely smooth, ut with tiny departures. +hese will grow as the universe e,pands, and will lead to the formation of gala,ies, stars,, and all the structure in the universe, including living eings. +he no oundary condition is the key to creation, the reason we are here... 4ome time ago, I wrote a popular ook, ! Brief 5istory of +ime. +he ook descri ed my picture of the universe, ut it left a num er of issues unresolved. I have therefore written a new ook, the Grand 2esign, with -eonard &lodninov, to try to answer "uestions like, 5ow can we understand the world in which we find ourselves? What is the nature of reality? 5ow does the universe ehave, and why does it e,ist. 2oes it need a ;reator. &ost of us don$t worry a out these "uestions most of the time. But almost all of us must sometimes wonder, Why are we here. Where do we come from? +raditionally these are "uestions for %hilosophy, ut %hilosophy is dead. %hilosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics. 4cientists have ecome the earers of the torch of discovery in our "uest for knowledge. +he purpose of the Grand 2esign is to give the answers that are suggested y recent discoveries. +hey lead us to a new and very different picture of the universe, and our place in it... +he laws of science descri e Fhow the universe ehaves, ut +o understand the universe at the deepest level, we also need to understand Fwhy. Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we e,ist? Why this particular set of laws, and not some other... +he answer to all these "uestions, is &9theory. &9theory is the only unified theory which has all the properties that we think the final theory ought to have. It is not a theory in the usual sense, ut it is a whole family of different theories, each of which is a good description of o servations only in some range of physical situations. It is a it like a map. !s is well known, one cannot show the whole of the Earth$s surface on a single map0 the usual &ercator pro1ection used for maps of the world makes areas appear larger and larger in the far north and south, and doesn$t cover the #orth and 4outh poles. 12

Instead one has to use a collection of maps, each of which covers a limited region. +he maps overlap each other, and where they do, they show the same landscape. &9theory is similar. +he different theories in the &9theory family may look very different, ut they can all e regarded as limiting cases of the same underlying theory, when certain "uantities such as the energy or some fields are small. Each theory has only a limited range of validity, ut where the ranges of two theories overlap, they predict the same o servations. +here is no single theory, that is a good representation of o servations in all situations... &9theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing. +heir creation does not re"uire the intervention of some 4upernatural Being, or God. ?ather, these multiple universes arise naturally, from physical law. +hey are a prediction of science. Each universe has many possi le histories, and many possi le states at later times, that is, at times like the present, long after their creation. &ost of these states will e "uite unlike the universe we o serve, and "uite unsuita le for the e,istence of any form of life. 6nly a very few would allow creatures like us to e,ist. +hus, our presence selects out from this vast array, only those universes that are compati le with our e,istence. !lthough we are puny and insignificant on the scale of the ;osmos, this makes us, in a sense, the -ords of creation... &9theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find. +he fact that we, humans who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature, have een a le to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe, is a great triumph. But perhaps the true miracle, is that a stract considerations of logic, lead to a uni"ue theory, that predicts and descri es a vast universe, full of the ama3ing variety that we see. If the theory is confirmed y o servation, it will e the successful conclusion of a search going ack more than @,/// years. We will have found the Grand 2esign...

Into a Black 5ole

It is a great pleasure for me to e ack again in ;hile, to cele rate the si,tieth irthday of an old friend, and esteemed colleague, ;laudio Bunster, whom I have known for almost forty years. ;laudio has done so much for science in general, and for science in ;hile in particular.Being in the city of Ialdivia where se,, the center he created, is located, is "uite meaningful to me. It is said that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction, and nowhere is this more true than in the case of lack holes. Black holes are stranger than anything dreamt up y science fiction writers, ut they are firmly matters of science Ffact.#ot that science fiction was slow to clim on the and9wagon after lack holes were discovered.. I remem er going to the premier of a Walt 2i3ny film, +he Black 5ole, in the 'A*/s. It was a out a spaceship, that was sent to investigate a lack hole that had een discovered. It wasn$t a very good film, ut it had an interesting ending. !fter or iting the lack hole, one of the scientists decides, the only way to find out what is going on, is to go inside.4o he gets into a space pro e, and dives into the lack hole. !fter a screen writer$s depiction of 5ell, he emerges into a new universe. +his is an early e,ample of the science fiction use of a lack hole as a wormhole, a passage from one universe to another, or ack to another location in the same universe. 4uch wormholes, if they e,isted, would provide short cuts for Interstellar space travel, which otherwise would e pretty slow and tedious, if one had to keep to the Einstein speed limit, and stay elow the speed of light. In fact, science fiction writers should not have een taken so much y surprise.+he idea ehind lack holes, has een around in the scientific community for more than .// years. In '*)@,a ;am ridge don, 7ohn &ichell, wrote a paper in the %hilosophical +ransactions of the ?oyal 4ociety of -ondon,a out what 13

he called dark stars. 5e pointed out that a star that was sufficiently massive and compact, would have such a strong gravitational field that light could not escape. !ny light emitted from the surface of the star, would e dragged ack y the star$s gravitational attraction, efore it could get very far. &ichell suggested that there might e a large num er of stars like this. !lthough we would not e a le to see them, ecause the light from them would not reach us, we would still feel their gravitational attraction. 4uch o 1ects are what we now call lack holes, ecause that is what they are, lack voids in space. ! similar suggestion was made a few years later, y the =rench scientist the &ar"uis de -aFplass, apparently independently of &ichell. Interestingly enough, -aFplass included it in only the first and second editions of his ook, +he 4ystem of the World, and left it out of later editions. %erhaps he decided that it was a cra3y idea. Both &ichell and -aFplass thought of light as consisting of particles, rather like cannon alls, that could e slowed down y gravity, and made to fall ack on the star. But a famous e,periment, carried out y two !mericans, &ichelson and &orley in '))*, showed that light always traveled at a speed of one hundred and eighty si, thousand miles a second, no matter where it came from. 5ow then could gravity slow down light, and make it fall ack. +his was impossi le, according to the then accepted ideas of space and time. But in 'A'B, Einstein put forward his revolutionary General +heory of ?elativity. In this, space and time were no longer separate and independent entities. Instead, they were 1ust different directions in a single o 1ect called spacetime. +his spacetime was not flat, ut was warped and curved y the matter and energy in it. In order to understand this, considered a sheet of ru er, with a weight placed on it, to represent a star. +he weight will form a depression in the ru er, and will cause the sheet near the star to e curved, rather than flat. If one now rolls mar les on the ru er sheet, their paths will e curved, rather than eing straight lines. In 'A'A, a British e,pedition to West !frica, lookedat light from distant stars, that passed near the 4un during an eclipse. +hey found that the images of the stars, were shifted slightly from their normal positions. +his indicated that the paths of the light from the stars, had een ent y the curved spacetime near the 4un. General ?elativity was confirmed. ;onsider now placing heavier and heavier, and more and more concentrated weights on the ru er sheet. +hey will depress the sheet more and more. Eventually, at a critical weight and si3e, they will make a ottomless hole in the sheet, that particles can fall into, ut nothing can get out of. What happens in spacetime according to General ?elativity, is rather similar. ! star will curve and distort the spacetime near it, more and more, the more massive and more compact the star is. If a massive star that has urnt up its nuclear fuel, cools and shrinks elow a critical si3e, it will "uite literally make a ottomless hole in spacetime, that light can$t get out of. 4uch o 1ects were given the name, lack holes, y the !merican physicist, 7ohn Wheeler, who was one of the first to recogni3e their importance, and the pro lems they pose. +he name caught on "uickly.It suggested something dark and mysterious, But the =rench, eing =rench, saw a more riskay meaning. =or years, they resisted the name, troo noir, claiming it was o scene.But that was a it like trying to stand against Fle week end, and other franglay. In the end, they had to give in.Who can resist a name that is such a winner. =rom the outside, you can$t tell what is inside a lack hole. Hou can throw television sets, diamond rings, or even your worst enemies into a lack hole, and all the lack hole will remem er, is the total mass, and the state of rotation. 7ohn Wheeler called this, ! Black 5ole 5as #o 5air.+o the =rench, this 1ust confirmed their suspicions. 14

! lack hole has a oundary, called the event hori3on.It is where gravity is 1ust strong enough to drag light ack, and prevent it escaping.Because nothing can travel faster than light, everything else will get dragged ack also. =alling through the event hori3on, is a it like going over #iagra =alls in a canoe.If you are a ove the falls, you can get away if you paddle fast enough, ut once you are over the edge, you are lost.+here$s no way ack. !s you get nearer the falls, the current gets faster.+his means it pulls harder on the front of the canoe, than the ack.theres a danger that the canoe will e pulled apart. It is the same with lack holes.If you fall towards a lack hole feet first, gravity will pull harder on your feet than your head, ecause they are nearer the lack hole. +he result is, you will e stretched out longwise, and s"uashed in sideways.. If the lack hole has a mass of a few times our sun, you would e torn apart, and made into spaghetti, efore you reached the hori3on. 5owever, if you fell into a much larger lack hole, with a mass of a million times the sun, you would reach the hori3on without difficulty.4o, if you want to e,plore the inside of a lack hole, choose a ig one. +here is a lack hole of a out a million solar masses, at the center of our &ilky way gala,y. !lthough you wouldn$t notice anything particular as you fell into a lack hole, someone watching you from a distance, would never see you cross the event hori3on. Instead, you would appear to slow down, and hover 1ust outside.Hou would get dimmer and dimmer, and redder and redder, until you were effectively lost from sight. !s far as the outside world is concerned, you would e lost for ever. Because lack holes have no hair, in Wheeler$s phrase, one can$t tell from the outside what is inside a lack hole, apart from its mass and rotation. +his means that a lack hole contains a lot of information that is hidden from the outside world.But there$s a limit to the amount of information, one can pack into a region of space. Information re"uires energy, and energy has mass, y Einstein$s famous e"uation, E D m c s"uared.4o if there$s too much information in a region of space, it will collapse into a lack hole, and the si3e of the lack hole will reflect the amount of information. It is like piling more and more ooks into a li rary.Eventually, the shelves will give way, and the li rary will collapse into a lack hole. If the amount of hidden information inside a lack hole, depends on the si3e of the hole, one would e,pect from general principles, that the lack hole would have a temperature, and would glow like a piece of hot metal. But that was impossi le, ecause as everyone knew, nothing could get out of a lack hole. 6r so it was thought, ut I discovered that particles can leak out of a lack hole. +he reason is, that on a very small scale, things are a it fu33y.+his is summed up in the uncertainty relation, discovered y Werner 5eisen erg in 'A.@, which says that the more precisely you know the position of a particle, the less precisely you can know its speed, and vice versa. +his means that if a particle is in a small lack hole, you know its position fairly accurately.Its speed therefore will e rather uncertain, and can e more than the peed of light, which would allow the particle to escape from the lack hole. +he larger the lack hole, the less accurately the position of a particle in it is defined, so the more precisely the speed is defined, and the less chance there is that it will e more than the speed of light,. ! lack hole of the mass of the sun, would leak particles at such a slow rate, it would e impossi le to detect. 5owever, there could e much smaller mini lack holes. +hese might have formed in the very early universe, if it had een chaotic and irregular. ! lack hole of the mass of a mountain, would give off ,9rays and gamma rays, at a rate of a out ten million &egawatts, enough to power the world$s electricity supply. It wouldn$t e easy however, to harnass a mini lack hole.Hou couldn$t keep it in a power station, ecause it would drop through the floor, and end up at the center of the Earth. ! out the only way, would e to have the lack hole in or it around the Earth. %eople have searched for mini lack holes of this mass, ut have so far, not found any.+his is a pity, ecause if they had, I would have got a #o el pri3e. !nother possi ility however, is that we might e a le to create micro lack holes in the e,tra dimensions of space time. !ccording to some theories, the universe we e,perience, is 1ust a four dimensional surface, in a ten or eleven dimensional space. We wouldn$t see these e,tra dimensions, ecause light wouldn$t propagate through them, ut only through the 15

four dimensions of our universe. Gravity, however, would affect the e,tra dimensions, and would e much stronger than in our universe.+his would make it much easier to form a little lack hole in the e,tra dimensions . It might e possi le to o serve this at the -5;, the -arge 5adron ;ollider, at ;ern, in 4wit3erland.+his consists of a circular tunnel, .* kilometers long.+wo eams of particles travel round this tunnel in opposite directions, and are made to collide. 4ome of the collisions might create micro lack holes.+hese would radiate particles in a pattern that would e easy to recogni3e. 4o, I might get a #o el pri3e, after all. !s particles escape from a lack hole the hole will lose mass, and shrink.+his will increase the rate of emission of particles.Eventually, the lack hole will lose all its mass, and disappear. What then happens to all the particles and unlucky astronauts, that fell into the lack hole. +hey can$t 1ust re9emerge when the lack hole disappears.+he particles that come out of a lack hole, seem to e completely random, and to ear no relation to what fell in. It appears that the information a out what fell in, is lost, apart from the total amount of mass, and the amount of rotation. But if information is lost, this raises a serious pro lem that strikes at the heart of our understanding of science. =or more than .// years, we have elieved in 4cientific determinism, that is, that the laws of science, determine the evolution of the universe. +his was formulated y -aFplass as, If we know the state of the universe at one time, the laws of science will determine it at all future and past times. #apoleon is said to have asked -aFplass how God fitted into this picture.-aFplass replied, 4ire, I have not needed that hypothesis. I don$t think that -aFplass was claiming that God didn$t e,ist. It is 1ust that 5e doesn$t intervene, to reak the laws of 4cience. +hat must e the position of every scientist. ! scientific law, is not a scientific law, if it only holds when some supernatural eing, decides to let things run, and not intervene. In -aFplass$s determinism, one needed to know the positions and speeds of all particles at one time in order to predict the future. But according to the uncertainty relation, the more accurately you know the positions, the less accurately you can know the speeds, and vice versa. In other words, you can$t know F oth the positions, Fand the speeds, accurately. 5ow then can you predict the future accurately? +he answer is, that although one can$t predict the positions and speeds separately, one Fcan predict what is called, the "uantum state.+his is something from which oth positions and speeds can e calculated, to a certain degree of accuracy. We would still e,pect the universe to e deterministic, in the sense that if we knew the "uantum state of the universe at one time, the laws of science should ena le us predict it at any other time. If information were lost in lack holes, we wouldn$t e a le to predict the future, ecause a lack hole could emit any collection of particles. It could emit a working television set, or a leather ound volume of the complete works of 4hakespeare, though the chance of such e,otic emissions is very low. It is much more likely to e thermal ?adiation, like the glow from red hot metal. It might seem that it wouldn$t matter very much if we couldn$t predict what comes out of lack holes.+here aren$t any lack holes near us. But it is a matter of principle.If determinism reaks down with lack holes, it could reak down in other situations.+here could e virtual lack holes that appear as fluctuations out of the vacuum, a sor one set of particles, emit another, and disappear into the vacuum again. Even worse, if determinism reaks down, we can$t e sure of our past history either.+he history ooks and our memories could 1ust e illusions. It is the past that tells us who we are.Without it, we lose our identity. It was therefore very important to determine whether information really was lost in lack holes, or whether in principle, it could e recovered. &any people felt that information should not e lost, ut no one could suggest a mechanism y which it could e preserved. +he arguments went on for years.=inally, I found what I think is the answer. It depends on the idea of ?ichard =einman, that there isn$t a single history, ut many different possi le histories, each with their own pro a ility. In this case, there are two 16

kinds of history.In one, there is a lack hole, into which particles can fall, ut in the other kind, there is no lack hole. +he point is, that from the outside, one can$t e certain whether there is a lack hole, or not. 4o there is always a chance that there isn$t a lack hole.+his possi ility is enough to preserve the information, ut the information is not returned in a very useful form. It is like urning an encyclopedia..Information is not lost if you keep all the smoke and ashes, ut it is difficult to read. Lip +horne and I had a et with 7ohn %reskill, that information would e lost in lack holes. When I discovered how information could e preserved, I conceded the et.I gave 7ohn %reskill an encyclopedia.&ay e I should have 1ust given him the ashes. What does this tell us a out whether it is possi le to fall in a lack hole, and come out in another universe. +he e,istence of alternative histories with lack holes, suggests this might e possi le. +he hole would need to e large, and if it was rotating, it might have a passage to another universe.But you couldn$t come ack to our universe. 4o, although I$m keen on space flight, I$m not going to try that. +he message of this lecture, is, that lack holes ain$t as lack as they are painted.+hey are not the eternal prisons they were once thought.+hings Fcan get out of a lack hole, oth to the outside, and possi ly, to another universe. 4o, if you feel you are in a lack hole, don$t give up.+here$s a way out. I would like to thank the organi3ers of this meeting again, for inviting me, to this eautiful country, which I discovered a out ten years ago.&y stay in ;hile is not over, and I look forward to the coming days.,

=reedom from =ear speech y !ung 4ang 4uu Lyi, 'AA/ It is not power that corrupts ut fear. =ear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are su 1ect to it. &ost Burmese are familiar with the four a9gati, the four kinds of corruption. ;handa9gati, corruption induced y desire, is deviation from the right path in pursuit of ri es or for the sake of those one loves. 2osa9gati is taking the wrong path to spite those against whom one ears ill will, and moga9gati is a erration due to ignorance. But perhaps the worst of the four is haya9gati, for not only does haya, fear, stifle and slowly destroy all sense of right and wrong, it so often lies at the root of the other three kinds of corruption. 7ust as chanda9gati, when not the result of sheer avarice, can e caused y fear of want or fear of losing the goodwill of those one loves, so fear of eing surpassed, humiliated or in1ured in some way can provide the impetus for ill will. !nd it would e difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered y fear. With so close a relationship etween fear and corruption it is little wonder that in any society where fear is rife corruption in all forms ecomes deeply entrenched. %u lic dissatisfaction with economic hardships has een seen as the chief cause of the movement for democracy in Burma, sparked off y the student demonstrations 'A)). It is true that years of incoherent policies, inept official measures, urgeoning inflation and falling real income had turned the country into an economic sham les. But it was more than the difficulties of eking out a arely accepta le standard of living that had eroded the patience of a traditionally good9natured, "uiescent people 9 it was also the humiliation of a way of life disfigured y corruption and fear. +he students were protesting not 1ust against the death of their comrades ut against the denial of their right to life y a totalitarian regime which deprived the present of meaningfulness and held out no hope for the future. !nd ecause the students$ protests articulated the frustrations of the people at large, the demonstrations "uickly grew into a nationwide movement. 4ome of its keenest supporters were usinessmen who had developed the skills and the contacts necessary not only to survive ut to prosper within the system. But their affluence offered them no genuine sense of security or fulfilment, and they could not ut see that if they and their fellow citi3ens, regardless of economic status, were to achieve a worthwhile e,istence, an accounta le administration was at least a necessary if not a sufficient condition. 17

+he people of Burma had wearied of a precarious state of passive apprehension where they were $as water in the cupped hands$ of the powers that e. Emerald cool we may eO!s water in cupped handsOBut oh that we might eO!s splinters of glassOIn cupped hands. Glass splinters, the smallest with its sharp, glinting power to defend itself against hands that try to crush, could e seen as a vivid sym ol of the spark of courage that is an essential attri ute of those who would free themselves from the grip of oppression. Bogyoke !ung 4an regarded himself as a revolutionary and searched tirelessly for answers to the pro lems that eset Burma during her times of trial. 5e e,horted the people to develop courageM $2on$t 1ust depend on the courage and intrepidity of others. Each and every one of you must make sacrifices to ecome a hero possessed of courage and intrepidity. +hen only shall we all e a le to en1oy true freedom.$ +he effort necessary to remain uncorrupted in an environment where fear is an integral part of everyday e,istence is not immediately apparent to those fortunate enough to live in states governed y the rule of law. 7ust laws do not merely prevent corruption y meting out impartial punishment to offenders. +hey also help to create a society in which people can fulfil the asic re"uirements necessary for the preservation of human dignity without recourse to corrupt practices. Where there are no such laws, the urden of upholding the principles of 1ustice and common decency falls on the ordinary people. It is the cumulative effect on their sustained effort and steady endurance which will change a nation where reason and conscience are warped y fear into one where legal rules e,ist to promote man$s desire for harmony and 1ustice while restraining the less desira le destructive traits in his nature. In an age when immense technological advances have created lethal weapons which could e, and are, used y the powefful and the unprincipled to dominate the weak and the helpless, there is a compelling need for a closer relationship etween politics and ethics at oth the national and international levels. +he Universal 2eclaration of 5uman ?ights of the United #ations proclaims that $every individual and every organ of society$ should strive to promote the asic rights and freedoms to which all human eings regardless of race, nationality or religion are entitled. But as long as there are governments whose authority is founded on coercion rather than on the mandate of the people, and interest groups which place short9term profits a ove long9term peace and prosperity, concerted international action to protect and promote human rights will remain at est a partially reali3ed struggle. +here willcontinue to e arenas of struggle where victims of oppression have to draw on their own inner resources to defend their inaliena le rights as mem ers of the human family. +he "uintessential revolution is that of the spirit, orn of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation$s development. ! revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the ini"uities of the old order would continue to e operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. +here has to e a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences ofdesire, ill will, ignorance and fear. 4aints, it has een said, are the sinners who go on trying. 4o free men are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to ear the responsi ilities and to uphold the disciplines which will maintain a free society. !mong the asic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might e full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as oth a means and an end. ! people who would uild a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly esta lished as a guarantee against state9 induced power must first learn to li erate their own minds from apathy and fear. !lways one to practise what he preached, !ung 4an himself constantly demonstrated courage 9 not 1ust the physical sort ut the kind that ena led him to speak the truth, to stand y his word, to accept criticism, to admit his faults, to correct his mistakes, to respect the opposition, to parley with the enemy and to let people e the 1udge of his worthiness as a leader. It is for such moral courage that he will always e loved and respected in Burma 9 not merely as a warrior hero ut as the inspiration and conscience of the nation. +he words used y 7awaharlal #ehru to descri e &ahatma Gandhi could well e applied to !ung 4anM 18

$+he essence of his teaching was fearlessness and truth, and action allied to these, always keeping the welfare of the masses in view.$ Gandhi, that great apostle of non9violence, and !ung 4an, the founder of a national army, were very different personalities, ut as there is an inevita le sameness a out the challenges ofauthoritarian rule anywhere at any time, so there is a similarity in the intrinsic "ualities of those who rise up to meet the challenge. #ehru, who considered the instillation of courage in the people of India one of Gandhi$s greatest achievements, was a political modernist, ut as he assessed the needs for a twentieth9century movement for independence, he found himself looking ack to the philosophy of ancient IndiaM $+he greatest gift for an individual or a nation . .. was a haya, fearlessness, not merely odily courage ut a sence of fear from the mind.$ =earlessness may e a gift ut perhaps more precious is the courage ac"uired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the ha it of refusing to let fear dictate one$s actions, courage that could e descri ed as $grace under pressure$ 9 grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure. Within a system which denies the e,istence of asic human rights, fear tends to e the order of the day. =ear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear ofdeath, fear oflosing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. ! most insidious form of fear is that which mas"uerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man$s self9respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned y fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Het even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civili3ed man. +he wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of un ridled power is generally a firm elief in the sanctity of ethical principles com ined with a historical sense that despite all set acks the condition of man is set on an ultimate course for oth spiritual and material advancement. It is his capacity for self9 improvement and self9redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere rute. !t the root of human responsi ility is the concept of peffection, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to follow that path if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise a ove individual limitations and environmental impediments. It is man$s vision of a world fit for rational, civili3ed humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to uild societies free from want and fear. ;oncepts such as truth, 1ustice and compassion cannot e dismissed as trite when these are often the only ulwarks which stand against ruthless power. !ung 4an 4uu Lyi 4peech 9 =reedom =rom =ear &artin -uther Ling 4peech 9 I 5ave a 2ream 4teps of the -incoln &emorial Washington 2.;. !ugust .), 'A(@ =ive score years ago, a great !merican, in whose sym olic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation %roclamation. +his momentous decree came as a great eacon light of hope to millions of #egro slaves who had een seared in the flames of withering in1ustice. It came as a 1oyous day reak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the #egro is still not free. P6ne hundred years later, the life of the #egro is still sadly crippled y the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 6ne hundred years later, the #egro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. 6ne hundred years later, the #egro is still languishing in the corners of !merican society and finds himself an e,ile in his own land. 4o we have come here today to dramati3e an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation$s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our repu lic wrote the magnificent words of the ;onstitution and the 2eclaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every !merican was to fall heir. 19

+his note was a promise that all men would e guaranteed the inaliena le rights of life, li erty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is o vious today that !merica has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citi3ens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred o ligation, !merica has given the #egro people a ad check which has come ack marked Pinsufficient funds.P But we refuse to elieve that the ank of 1ustice is ankrupt. We refuse to elieve that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. 4o we have come to cash this check 99 a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of 1ustice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind !merica of the fierce urgency of now. +his is no time to engage in the lu,ury of cooling off or to take the tran"uili3ing drug of gradualism. #ow is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial 1ustice. #ow is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God$s children. #ow is the time to lift our nation from the "uicksands of racial in1ustice to the solid rock of rotherhood. It would e fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the #egro. +his sweltering summer of the #egro$s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and e"uality. #ineteen si,ty9three is not an end, ut a eginning. +hose who hope that the #egro needed to low off steam and will now e content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to usiness as usual. +here will e neither rest nor tran"uility in !merica until the #egro is granted his citi3enship rights. +he whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the right day of 1ustice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of 1ustice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not e guilty of wrongful deeds. -et us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom y drinking from the cup of itterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. !gain and again we must rise to the ma1estic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. +he marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the #egro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white rothers, as evidenced y their presence here today, have come to reali3e that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is ine,trica ly ound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. !nd as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn ack. +here are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, PWhen will you e satisfied?P we can never e satisfied as long as our odies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot e satisfied as long as the #egro$s asic mo ility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never e satisfied as long as a #egro in &ississippi cannot vote and a #egro in #ew Hork elieves he has nothing for which to vote. #o, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not e satisfied until 1ustice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tri ulations. 4ome of you have come fresh from narrow cells. 4ome of you have come from areas where your "uest for freedom left you attered y the storms of persecution and staggered y the winds of police rutality. Hou have een the veterans of creative suffering. ;ontinue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. 20

Go ack to &ississippi, go ack to !la ama, go ack to Georgia, go ack to -ouisiana, go ack to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will e changed. -et us not wallow in the valley of despair. 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 !merican dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creedM PWe hold these truths to e self9evidentM that all men are created e"ual.P 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 e a le to sit down together at a ta le of rotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of &ississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of in1ustice and oppression, will e transformed into an oasis of freedom and 1ustice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not e 1udged y the color of their skin ut y the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of !la ama, whose governor$s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will e transformed into a situation where little lack oys and lack girls will e a le to 1oin hands with little white oys and white girls and walk together as sisters and rothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall e e,alted, every hill and mountain shall e made low, the rough places will e made plain, and the crooked places will e made straight, and the glory of the -ord shall e revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. +his is our hope. +his is the faith with which I return to the 4outh. With this faith we will e a le to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will e a le to transform the 1angling discords of our nation into a eautiful symphony of rotherhood. With this faith we will e a le to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to 1ail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will e free one day. +his will e the day when all of God$s children will e a le to sing with a new meaning, P&y country, $tis of thee, sweet land of li erty, of thee I sing. -and where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim$s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.P !nd if !merica is to e a great nation, this must ecome true. 4o let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of #ew 5ampshire. -et freedom ring from the mighty mountains of #ew Hork. -et freedom ring from the heightening !lleghenies of %ennsylvaniaQ -et freedom ring from the snowcapped ?ockies of ;oloradoQ -et freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of ;aliforniaQ But not only that0 let freedom ring from 4tone &ountain of GeorgiaQ -et freedom ring from -ookout &ountain of +ennesseeQ -et freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of &ississippi. =rom every mountainside, let freedom ring. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will e a le to speed up that day when all of God$s children, lack men and white men, 7ews and Gentiles, %rotestants and ;atholics, will e a le to 1oin hands and sing in the words of the old #egro spiritual, P=ree at lastQ free at lastQ thank God !lmighty, we are free at lastQP y &artin -uther Ling Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance I accept the #o el %ri3e for %eace at a moment when .. million #egroes of the United 4tates of !merica are engaged in a creative attle to end the long night of racial in1ustice. I accept this award on ehalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a ma1estic scorn for risk and danger to esta lish a reign of freedom and a rule of 1ustice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, !la ama, our children, crying out for rotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in %hiladelphia, &ississippi0 young people seeking to secure the right to vote were rutali3ed and murdered. !nd only yesterday more than >/ houses of worship in the 4tate of &ississippi alone were om ed or urned ecause they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that de ilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains 21

them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder. +herefore, I must ask why this pri3e is awarded to a movement which is eleagured and committed to unrelenting struggle0 to a movement which has not won the very peace and rotherhood which is the essence of the #o el %ri3e. !fter contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on ehalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral "uestion of our time 9 9 the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. ;ivili3ation and violence are antithetical concepts. #egroes of the United 4tates, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, ut a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. 4ooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and there y transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of rotherhood, If this is to e achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which re1ects revenge, aggression and retaliation. +he foundation of such a method is love. +he tortuous road which has led from &ontgomery, !la ama, to 6slo ears witness to this truth. +his is a road over which millions of #egroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity. +his same road has opened for all !mericans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new ;ivil ?ights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, e widened and lengthened into a super highway of 1ustice as #egro and white men in increasing num ers create alliances to overcome their common pro lems. I accept this award today with an a iding faith in !merica and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the am iguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the PisnessP of man$s present nature makes him morally incapa le of reaching up for the eternal PoughtnessP that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and 1etsom in the river of life una le to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically ound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the right day reak of peace and rotherhood can never ecome a reality. I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I elieve that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. +his is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I elieve that even amid today$s motor ursts and whining ullets, there is still hope for a righter tomorrow. I elieve that wounded 1ustice, lying prostrate on the lood9flowing streets of our nations, can e lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to elieve that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their odies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, e"uality and freedom for their spirits. I elieve that what self9centered men have torn down men other9centered can uild up. I still elieve that one day mankind will ow efore the altars of God and e crowned triumphant over war and loodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaimed the rule of the land. P!nd the lion and the lam shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall e afraid.P I still elieve that We 4hall overcomeQ +his faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days ecome dreary with low9hovering clouds and our nights ecome darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civili3ation struggling to e orn. +oday I come to 6slo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this pri3e on ehalf of all men who love peace and rotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my hearQ I am aware that this pri3e is much more than an honor to me personally. 22

Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful 1ourney possi le 9 the known pilots and the unknown ground crew. 4o you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into or it. Hou honor, once again, ;hief -utuli of 4outh !frica, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most rutal e,pression of man$s inhumanity to man. Hou honor the ground crew without whose la or and sacrifices the 1et flights to freedom could never have left the earth. &ost of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who$s Who. Het when years have rolled past and when the la3ing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live 9 men and women will know and children will e taught that we have a finer land, a etter people, a more no le civili3ation 9 ecause these hum le children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness sake. I think !lfred #o el would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners 9 all those to whom eauty is truth and truth eauty 9 and in whose eyes the eauty of genuine rotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold. &artin -uther Ling 4peech 9 #o el %eace %ri3e !cceptance I 4ee the %romised -and +hank you very kindly, my friends. !s I listened to ?alph ! ernathy in his elo"uent and generous introduction and then thought a out myself, I wondered who he was talking a out. It$s always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good a out you. !nd ?alph is the est friend that I have in the world. I$m delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. Hou reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. 4omething is happening in &emphis, something is happening in our world. !s you know, if I were standing at the eginning of time, with the possi ility of general and panoramic view of the whole human history up to now, and the !lmighty said to me, P&artin -uther Ling, which age would you like to live in?P99 I would take my mental flight y Egypt through, or rather across the ?ed 4ea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. !nd in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn$t stop there. I would move on y Greece, and take my mind to &ount 6lympus. !nd I would see %lato, !ristotle, 4ocrates, Euripides and !ristophanes assem led around the %arthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldn$t stop there. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the ?oman Empire. !nd I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn$t stop there. I would even come up to the day of the ?enaissance, and get a "uick picture of all that the ?enaissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of man. But I wouldn$t stop there. I would even go y the way that the man for whom I$m named had his ha itat. !nd I would watch &artin -uther as he tacked his ninety9five theses on the door at the church in Witten erg. But I wouldn$t stop there. I would come on up even to ')(@, and watch a vacillating president y the name of ! raham -incoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation %roclamation. But I wouldn$t stop there. I would even come up the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the pro lems of the ankruptcy of his nation. !nd come with an elo"uent cry that we have nothing to fear ut fear itself. But I wouldn$t stop there. 4trangely enough, I would turn to the !lmighty, and say, PIf you allow me to live 1ust a few years in the second half of the twentieth century, I will e happy.P #ow that$s a strange 23

statement to make, ecause the world is all messed up. +he nation is sick. +rou le is in the land. ;onfusion all around. +hat$s a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. !nd I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding99something is happening in our world. +he masses of people are rising up. !nd wherever they are assem led today, whether they are in 7ohannes urg, 4outh !frica0 #airo i, LenyaM !ccra, Ghana0 #ew Hork ;ity0 !tlanta, Georgia0 7ackson, &ississippi0 or &emphis, +ennessee99 the cry is always the same99PWe want to e free.P !nd another reason that I$m happy to live in this period is that we have een forced to a point where we$re going to have to grapple with the pro lems that men have een trying to grapple with through history, ut the demands didn$t force them to do it. 4urvival demands that we grapple with them. &en, for years now, have een talking a out war and peace. But now, no longer can they 1ust talk a out it. It is no longer a choice etween violence and nonviolence in this world0 it$s nonviolence or none,istence. +hat is where we are today. !nd also in the human rights revolution, if something isn$t done, and in a hurry, to ring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. #ow, I$m 1ust happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. !nd I$m happy that he$s allowed me to e in &emphis. I can remem er, I can remem er when #egroes were 1ust going around as ?alph has said, so often, scratching where they didn$t itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean usiness now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God$s world. !nd that$s all this whole thing is a out. We aren$t engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with any ody. We are saying that we are determined to e men. We are determined to e people. We are saying that we are God$s children. !nd that we don$t have to live like we are forced to live. #ow, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we$ve got to stay together. We$ve got to stay together and maintain unity. Hou know, whenever %haraoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? 5e kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in %haraoh$s court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that$s the eginning of getting out of slavery. #ow let us maintain unity. 4econdly, let us keep the issues where they are. +he issue is in1ustice. +he issue is the refusal of &emphis to e fair and honest in its dealings with its pu lic servants, who happen to e sanitation workers. #ow, we$ve got to keep attention on that. +hat$s always the pro lem with a little violence. Hou know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window9 reaking. I read the articles. +hey very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that &emphis is not eing fair to them, and that &ayor -oe is in dire need of a doctor. +hey didn$t get around to that. #ow we$re going to march again, and we$ve got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to e. !nd force every ody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God$s children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. +hat$s the issue. !nd we$ve got to say to the nationM we know it$s coming out. =or when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory. We aren$t going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police 24

forces0 they don$t know what to do. I$ve seen them so often. I remem er in Birmingham, !la ama, when we were in that ma1estic struggle there we would move out of the '(th 4treet Baptist ;hurch day after day0 y the hundreds we would move out. !nd Bull ;onnor would tell them to send the dogs forth and they did come0 ut we 1ust went efore the dogs singing, P!in$t gonna let no ody turn me round.P Bull ;onnor ne,t would say, P+urn the fire hoses on.P !nd as I said to you the other night, Bull ;onnor didn$t know history. 5e knew a kind of physics that somehow didn$t relate to the transphysics that we knew a out. !nd that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. !nd we went efore the fire hoses0 we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denomination, we had een immersed. If we were &ethodist, and some others, we had een sprinkled, ut we knew water. +hat couldn$t stop us. !nd we 1ust went on efore the dogs and we would look at them0 and we$d go on efore the water hoses and we would look at it, and we$d 1ust go on singing. P6ver my head I see freedom in the air.P !nd then we would e thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. !nd they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, P+ake them off,P and they did0 and we would 1ust go in the paddy wagon singing, PWe 4hall 6vercome.P !nd every now and then we$d get in the 1ail, and we$d see the 1ailers looking through the windows eing moved y our prayers, and eing moved y our words and our songs. !nd there was a power there which Bull ;onnor couldn$t ad1ust to0 and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham. #ow we$ve got to go on to &emphis 1ust like that. I call upon you to e with us &onday. #ow a out in1unctionsM We have an in1unction and we$re going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional in1unction. !ll we say to !merica is, PBe true to what you said on paper.P If I lived in ;hina or even ?ussia, or any totalitarian country, may e I could understand the denial of certain asic =irst !mendment privileges, ecause they hadn$t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assem ly. 4omewhere I read of the freedom of speech. 4omewhere I read of the freedom of the press. 4omewhere I read that the greatness of !merica is the right to protest for right. !nd so 1ust as I say, we aren$t going to let any in1unction turn us around. We are going on. We need all of you. !nd you know what$s eautiful to me, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It$s a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? 4omehow the preacher must e an !mos, and say, P-et 1ustice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.P 4omehow, the preacher must say with 7esus, P+he spirit of the -ord is upon me, ecause he hath anointed me to deal with the pro lems of the poor.P !nd I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these no le menM 7ames -awson, one who has een in this struggle for many years0 he$s een to 1ail for struggling0 ut he$s still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. ?ev. ?alph 7ackson, Billy Liles0 I could 1ust go right on down the list, ut time will not permit. But I want to thank them all. !nd I want you to thank them, ecause so often, preachers aren$t concerned a out anything ut themselves. !nd I$m always happy to see a relevant ministry. It$s alright to talk a out Plong white ro es over yonder,P in all of its sym olism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It$s alright to talk a out Pstreets flowing with milk and honey,P ut God has commanded us to e concerned a out the slums down here, and his children who can$t eat three s"uare meals a day. It$s alright to talk a out the new 7erusalem, ut one day, God$s preacher must talk a out the #ew Hork, the new !tlanta, the new %hiladelphia, the new -os !ngeles, the new &emphis, +ennessee. +his is what we have to do. #ow the other thing we$ll have to do is thisM !lways anchor our e,ternal direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. #ow, we are poor people, individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in !merica. We are poor. #ever stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us 25

together, collectively we are richer than all the nation in the world, with the e,ception of nine. 2id you ever think a out that? !fter you leave the United 4tates, 4oviet ?ussia, Great Britain, West Germany, =rance, and I could name the others, the #egro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty illion dollars a year, which is more than all of the e,ports of the United 4tates, and more than the national udget of ;anada. 2id you know that? +hat$s power right there, if we know how to pool it. We don$t have to argue with any ody. We don$t have to curse and go around acting ad with our words. We don$t need any ricks and ottles, we don$t need any &olotov cocktails, we 1ust need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, PGod sent us y here, to say to you that you$re not treating his children right. !nd we$ve come y here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda99fair treatment, where God$s children are concerned. #ow, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. !nd our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.P !nd so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neigh ors not to uy ;oca9 ;ola in &emphis. Go y and tell them not to uy 4ealtest milk. +ell them not to uy99what is the other read?99Wonder Bread. !nd what is the other read company, 7esse? +ell them not to uy 5art$s read. !s 7esse 7ackson has said, up to now, only the gar age men have een feeling pain0 now we must kind of redistri ute the pain. We are choosing these companies ecause they haven$t een fair in their hiring policies0 and we are choosing them ecause they can egin the process of saying, they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. !nd then they can move on downtown and tell &ayor -oe to do what is right. But not only that, we$ve got to strengthen lack institutions. I call upon you to take you money out of the anks downtown and deposit you money in +ri94tate Bank99we want a P ank9inP movement in &emphis. 4o go y the savings and loan association. I$m not asking you something that we don$t do ourselves at 4;-;. 7udge 5ooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the 4outhern ;hristian -eadership ;onference. We$re 1ust telling you to follow what we$re doing. %ut your money there. Hou have si, or seven lack insurance companies in &emphis. +ake out your insurance there. We want to have an Pinsurance9in.P #ow there are some practical things we can do. We egin the process of uilding a greater economic ase. !nd at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here. #ow, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we$ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. #othing would e more tragic than to stop at this point, in &emphis. We$ve got to see it through. !nd when we have our march, you need to e there. Be concerned a out your rother. Hou may not e on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together. -et us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. 6ne day a man came to 7esus0 and he wanted to raise some "uestions a out some vital matters in life. !t points, he wanted to trick 7esus, and show him that he knew a little more than 7esus knew, and through this, throw him off ase. #ow that "uestion could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological de ate. But 7esus immediately pulled that "uestion from mid9air, and placed it on a dangerous curve etween 7erusalem and 7ericho. !nd he talked a out a certain man, who fell among thieves. Hou remem er that a -evite and a priest passed y on the other side. +hey didn$t stop to help him. !nd finally a man of another race came y. 5e got down from his east, decided not to e compassionate y pro,y. But with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. 7esus ended up saying, this was the good man, ecause he had the capacity to pro1ect the PIP into the Pthou,P and to e concerned a out his rother. #ow you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the -evite didn$t stop. !t times we say they were usy going to church 26

meetings99an ecclesiastical gathering99and they had to get on down to 7erusalem so they wouldn$t e late for their meeting. !t other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that P6ne who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human ody twenty9four hours efore the ceremony.P !nd every now and then we egin to wonder whether may e they were not going down to 7erusalem, or down to 7ericho, rather to organi3e a P7ericho ?oad Improvement !ssociation.P +hat$s a possi ility. &ay e they felt that it was etter to deal with the pro lem from the casual root, rather than to get ogged down with an individual effort. But I$m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It$s possi le that these men were afraid. Hou see, the 7ericho road is a dangerous road. I remem er when &rs. Ling and I were first in 7erusalem. We rented a car and drove from 7erusalem down to 7ericho. !nd as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, PI can see why 7esus used this as a setting for his para le.P It$s a winding, meandering road. It$s really conducive for am ushing. Hou start out in 7erusalem, which is a out '.// miles, or rather '.// feet a ove sea level. !nd y the time you get down to 7ericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you$re a out ..// feet elow sea level. +hat$s a dangerous road. In the day of 7esus it came to e known as the PBloody %ass.P !nd you know, it$s possi le that the priest and the -evite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the ro ers were still around. 6r it$s possi le that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. !nd he was acting like he had een ro ed and hurt, in order to sei3e them over there, lure them there for "uick and easy sei3ure. !nd so the first "uestion that the -evite asked was, PIf I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?P But then the Good 4amaritan came y. !nd he reversed the "uestionM PIf I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?P. +hat$s the "uestion efore you tonight. #ot, PIf I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?P +he "uestion is not, PIf I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?P PIf I do no stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?P +hat$s the "uestion. -et us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. -et us stand with a greater determination. !nd let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make !merica what it ought to e. We have an opportunity to make !merica a etter nation. !nd I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to e here with you. Hou know, several years ago, I was in #ew Hork ;ity autographing the first ook that I had written. !nd while sitting there autographing ooks, a demented lack woman came up. +he only "uestion I heard from her was, P!re you &artin -uther Ling?P !nd I was looking down writing, and I said yes. !nd the ne,t minute I felt something eating on my chest. Before I knew it I had een sta ed y this demented woman. I was rushed to 5arlem 5ospital. It was a dark 4aturday afternoon. !nd that lade had gone through, and the N9rays revealed that the tip of the lade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. !nd once that$s punctured, you drown in your own lood99that$s the end of you. It came out in the #ew Hork +imes the ne,t morning, that if I had snee3ed, I would have died. Well, a out four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had een opened, and the lade had een taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. +hey allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, ut one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the %resident and the Iice9%resident. I$ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I$d received a visit and a letter from the Governor of #ew Hork, ut I$ve forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White %lains 5igh 4chool. !nd I looked at that letter, and I$ll never forget it. It said simply, P2ear 2r. LingM I am a ninth9grade student at the Whites %lains 5igh 4chool.P 4he said, 27

PWhile it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. !nd I read that if you had snee3ed, you would have died. !nd I$m simply writing you to say that I$m so happy that you didn$t snee3e.P !nd I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn$t snee3e. Because if I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have een around here in 'A(/, when students all over the 4outh started sitting9in at lunch counters. !nd I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the est in the !merican dream. !nd taking the whole nation ack to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep y the =ounding =athers in the 2eclaration of Independence and the ;onstitution. If I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have een around in 'A(., when #egroes in !l any, Georgia, decided to straighten their acks up. !nd whenever men and women straighten their acks up, they are going somewhere, ecause a man can$t ride your ack unless it is ent. If I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have een here in 'A(@, when the lack people of Birmingham, !la ama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and rought into eing the ;ivil ?ights Bill. If I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have had a chance later that year, in !ugust, to try to tell !merica a out a dream that I had had. If I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have een down in 4elma, !la ama, to see the great movement there. If I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have een in &emphis to see a community rally around those rothers and sisters who are suffering. I$m so happy that I didn$t snee3e. !nd they were telling me, now it doesn$t matter now. It really doesn$t matter what happens now. I left !tlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were si, of us, the pilot said over the pu lic address system, PWe are sorry for the delay, ut we have 2r. &artin -uther Ling on the plane. !nd to e sure that all of the ags were checked, and to e sure that nothing would e wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. !nd we$ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.P !nd then I got into &emphis. !nd some egan to say that threats, or talk a out the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white rothers? Well, I don$t know what will happen now. We$ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn$t matter with me now. Because I$ve een to the mountaintop. !nd I don$t mind. -ike any ody, I would like to live a long life. -ongevity has its place. But I$m not concerned a out that now. I 1ust want to do God$s will. !nd 5e$s allowed me to go up to the mountain. !nd I$ve looked over. !nd I$ve seen the %romised -and. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. !nd I$m happy, tonight. I$m not worried a out anything. I$m not fearing any man. &ine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the -ord. &artin -uther Ling 4peech 9 I 4ee the %romised -and &artin -uther Ling 4peech 9 I$ve Been to the &ountaintop &ason +emple J;hurch of God in ;hrist 5ead"uartersK, &emphis, +ennessee @ !pril 'A() +hank you very kindly, my friends. !s I listened to ?alph ! ernathy and his elo"uent and generous introduction and then thought a out myself, I wondered who he was talking a out. It$s always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good a out you. !nd ?alph ! ernathy is the est friend that I have in the world. I$m delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. Hou reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. 4omething is happening in &emphis0 something is happening in our world. !nd you know, if I were standing at the eginning of time, with the possi ility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the !lmighty said to me, P&artin -uther Ling, which age would you like to live in?P I would take my mental flight y Egypt and I would watch God$s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the ?ed 4ea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. !nd in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn$t stop there. I would move on y Greece and take my mind to &ount 6lympus. !nd I would see %lato, !ristotle, 28

4ocrates, Euripides and !ristophanes assem led around the %arthenon. !nd I would watch them around the %arthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldn$t stop there. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the ?oman Empire. !nd I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn$t stop there. I would even come up to the day of the ?enaissance, and get a "uick picture of all that the ?enaissance did for the cultural and aesthetic life of man. But I wouldn$t stop there. I would even go y the way that the man for whom I am named had his ha itat. !nd I would watch &artin -uther as he tacked his ninety9five theses on the door at the church of Witten erg. But I wouldn$t stop there. I would come on up even to ')(@, and watch a vacillating %resident y the name of ! raham -incoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation %roclamation. But I wouldn$t stop there. I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the pro lems of the ankruptcy of his nation. !nd come with an elo"uent cry that we have nothing to fear ut P fear itself.P But I wouldn$t stop there. 4trangely enough, I would turn to the !lmighty, and say, PIf you allow me to live 1ust a few years in the second half of the ./th century, I will e happy.P #ow that$s a strange statement to make, ecause the world is all messed up. +he nation is sick. +rou le is in the land0 confusion all around. +hat$s a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. !nd I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding. 4omething is happening in our world. +he masses of people are rising up. !nd wherever they are assem led today, whether they are in 7ohannes urg, 4outh !frica0 #airo i, Lenya0 !ccra, Ghana0 #ew Hork ;ity0 !tlanta, Georgia0 7ackson, &ississippi0 or &emphis, +ennessee 99 the cry is always the sameM PWe want to e free.P !nd another reason that I$m happy to live in this period is that we have een forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the pro lems that men have een trying to grapple with through history, ut the demands didn$t force them to do it. 4urvival demands that we grapple with them. &en, for years now, have een talking a out war and peace. But now, no longer can they 1ust talk a out it. It is no longer a choice etween violence and nonviolence in this world0 it$s nonviolence or none,istence. +hat is where we are today. !nd also in the human rights revolution, if something isn$t done, and done in a hurry, to ring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. #ow, I$m 1ust happy that God has allowed me to live in this period to see what is unfolding. !nd I$m happy that 5e$s allowed me to e in &emphis. I can remem er 99 I can remem er when #egroes were 1ust going around as ?alph has said, so often, scratching where they didn$t itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean usiness now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God$s world. !nd that$s all this whole thing is a out. We aren$t engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with any ody. We are saying that we are determined to e men. We are determined to e people. We are saying 99 We are saying that we are God$s children. !nd that we are God$s children, we don$t have to live like we are forced to live. #ow, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we$ve got to stay together. We$ve got to stay together and maintain unity. Hou know, whenever %haraoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? 5e kept the 29

slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in %haraoh$s court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that$s the eginning of getting out of slavery. #ow let us maintain unity. 4econdly, let us keep the issues where they are. +he issue is in1ustice. +he issue is the refusal of &emphis to e fair and honest in its dealings with its pu lic servants, who happen to e sanitation workers. #ow, we$ve got to keep attention on that. +hat$s always the pro lem with a little violence. Hou know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window9 reaking. I read the articles. +hey very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers are on strike, and that &emphis is not eing fair to them, and that &ayor -oe is in dire need of a doctor. +hey didn$t get around to that. #ow we$re going to march again, and we$ve got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to e 99 and force every ody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God$s children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. +hat$s the issue. !nd we$ve got to say to the nationM We know how it$s coming out. =or when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory. We aren$t going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces0 they don$t know what to do. I$ve seen them so often. I remem er in Birmingham, !la ama, when we were in that ma1estic struggle there, we would move out of the '(th 4treet Baptist ;hurch day after day0 y the hundreds we would move out. !nd Bull ;onnor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come0 ut we 1ust went efore the dogs singing, P!in$t gonna let no ody turn me around.P Bull ;onnor ne,t would say, P+urn the fire hoses on.P !nd as I said to you the other night, Bull ;onnor didn$t know history. 5e knew a kind of physics that somehow didn$t relate to the transphysics that we knew a out. !nd that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. !nd we went efore the fire hoses0 we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denominations, we had een immersed. If we were &ethodist, and some others, we had een sprinkled, ut we knew water. +hat couldn$t stop us. !nd we 1ust went on efore the dogs and we would look at them0 and we$d go on efore the water hoses and we would look at it, and we$d 1ust go on singing P6ver my head I see freedom in the air.P !nd then we would e thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. !nd they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, P+ake $em off,P and they did0 and we would 1ust go in the paddy wagon singing, PWe 4hall 6vercome.P !nd every now and then we$d get in 1ail, and we$d see the 1ailers looking through the windows eing moved y our prayers, and eing moved y our words and our songs. !nd there was a power there which Bull ;onnor couldn$t ad1ust to0 and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham. #ow we$ve got to go on in &emphis 1ust like that. I call upon you to e with us when we go out &onday. #ow a out in1unctionsM We have an in1unction and we$re going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional in1unction. !ll we say to !merica is, PBe true to what you said on paper.P If I lived in ;hina or even ?ussia, or any totalitarian country, may e I could understand some of these illegal in1unctions. &ay e I could understand the denial of certain asic =irst !mendment privileges, ecause they hadn$t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assem ly. 4omewhere I read of the freedom of speech. 4omewhere I read of the freedom of press. 4omewhere I read that the greatness of !merica is the right to protest for right. !nd so 1ust as I say, we aren$t going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around, we aren$t going to let any in1unction turn us around. We are going on. We need all of you. !nd you know what$s eautiful to me is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It$s a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? 4omehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his ones. !nd 30

whenever in1ustice is around he tell it. 4omehow the preacher must e an !mos, and saith, PWhen God speaks who can ut prophesy?P !gain with !mos, P-et 1ustice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.P 4omehow the preacher must say with 7esus, P+he 4pirit of the -ord is upon me, ecause he hath anointed me,P and he$s anointed me to deal with the pro lems of the poor.P !nd I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these no le menM 7ames -awson, one who has een in this struggle for many years0 he$s een to 1ail for struggling0 he$s een kicked out of Iander ilt University for this struggle, ut he$s still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. ?everend ?alph 7ackson, Billy Liles0 I could 1ust go right on down the list, ut time will not permit. But I want to thank all of them. !nd I want you to thank them, ecause so often, preachers aren$t concerned a out anything ut themselves. !nd I$m always happy to see a relevant ministry. It$s all right to talk a out Plong white ro es over yonder,P in all of its sym olism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down hereQ It$s all right to talk a out Pstreets flowing with milk and honey,P ut God has commanded us to e concerned a out the slums down here, and his children who can$t eat three s"uare meals a day. It$s all right to talk a out the new 7erusalem, ut one day, God$s preacher must talk a out the new #ew Hork, the new !tlanta, the new %hiladelphia, the new -os !ngeles, the new &emphis, +ennessee. +his is what we have to do. #ow the other thing we$ll have to do is thisM !lways anchor our e,ternal direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. #ow, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in !merica. We are poor. #ever stop and forget that collectively 99 that means all of us together 99 collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the e,ception of nine. 2id you ever think a out that? !fter you leave the United 4tates, 4oviet ?ussia, Great Britain, West Germany, =rance, and I could name the others, the !merican #egro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty illion dollars a year, which is more than all of the e,ports of the United 4tates, and more than the national udget of ;anada. 2id you know that? +hat$s power right there, if we know how to pool it. We don$t have to argue with any ody. We don$t have to curse and go around acting ad with our words. We don$t need any ricks and ottles. We don$t need any &olotov cocktails. We 1ust need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, PGod sent us y here, to say to you that you$re not treating his children right. !nd we$ve come y here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God$s children are concerned. #ow, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. !nd our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.P !nd so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neigh ors not to uy ;oca9 ;ola in &emphis. Go y and tell them not to uy 4ealtest milk. +ell them not to uy 99 what is the other read? 99 Wonder Bread. !nd what is the other read company, 7esse? +ell them not to uy 5art$s read. !s 7esse 7ackson has said, up to now, only the gar age men have een feeling pain0 now we must kind of redistri ute the pain. We are choosing these companies ecause they haven$t een fair in their hiring policies0 and we are choosing them ecause they can egin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. !nd then they can move on town 99 downtown and tell &ayor -oe to do what is right. But not only that, we$ve got to strengthen lack institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the anks downtown and deposit your money in +ri94tate Bank. We want a P ank9inP movement in &emphis. Go y the savings and loan association. I$m not asking you something that we don$t do ourselves at 4;-;. 7udge 5ooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the 4outhern ;hristian -eadership ;onference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. %ut your money there. Hou have si, or seven lack insurance companies here in the city of 31

&emphis. +ake out your insurance there. We want to have an Pinsurance9in.P #ow these are some practical things that we can do. We egin the process of uilding a greater economic ase. !nd at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here. #ow, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we$ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. #othing would e more tragic than to stop at this point in &emphis. We$ve got to see it through. !nd when we have our march, you need to e there. If it means leaving work, if it means leaving school 99 e there. Be concerned a out your rother. Hou may not e on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together. -et us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. 6ne day a man came to 7esus, and he wanted to raise some "uestions a out some vital matters of life. !t points he wanted to trick 7esus, and show him that he knew a little more than 7esus knew and throw him off ase.... #ow that "uestion could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological de ate. But 7esus immediately pulled that "uestion from mid9air, and placed it on a dangerous curve etween 7erusalem and 7ericho. !nd he talked a out a certain man, who fell among thieves. Hou remem er that a -evite and a priest passed y on the other side. +hey didn$t stop to help him. !nd finally a man of another race came y. 5e got down from his east, decided not to e compassionate y pro,y. But he got down with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. 7esus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, ecause he had the capacity to pro1ect the PIP into the Pthou,P and to e concerned a out his rother. #ow you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the -evite didn$t stop. !t times we say they were usy going to a church meeting, an ecclesiastical gathering, and they had to get on down to 7erusalem so they wouldn$t e late for their meeting. !t other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that P6ne who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human ody twenty9four hours efore the ceremony.P !nd every now and then we egin to wonder whether may e they were not going down to 7erusalem 99 or down to 7ericho, rather to organi3e a P7ericho ?oad Improvement !ssociation.P +hat$s a possi ility. &ay e they felt that it was etter to deal with the pro lem from the causal root, rather than to get ogged down with an individual effect. But I$m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It$s possi le that those men were afraid. Hou see, the 7ericho road is a dangerous road. I remem er when &rs. Ling and I were first in 7erusalem. We rented a car and drove from 7erusalem down to 7ericho. !nd as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, PI can see why 7esus used this as the setting for his para le.P It$s a winding, meandering road. It$s really conducive for am ushing. Hou start out in 7erusalem, which is a out '.// miles 99 or rather '.// feet a ove sea level. !nd y the time you get down to 7ericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you$re a out ..// feet elow sea level. +hat$s a dangerous road. In the days of 7esus it came to e known as the PBloody %ass.P !nd you know, it$s possi le that the priest and the -evite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the ro ers were still around. 6r it$s possi le that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. !nd he was acting like he had een ro ed and hurt, in order to sei3e them over there, lure them there for "uick and easy sei3ure. !nd so the first "uestion that the priest asked 99 the first "uestion that the -evite asked was, PIf I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?P But then the Good 4amaritan came y. !nd he reversed the "uestionM PIf I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?P +hat$s the "uestion efore you tonight. #ot, PIf I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my 1o . #ot, PIf I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?P +he "uestion is not, PIf I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?P +he "uestion is, PIf I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?P +hat$s the "uestion. 32

-et us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. -et us stand with a greater determination. !nd let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make !merica what it ought to e. We have an opportunity to make !merica a etter nation. !nd I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to e here with you. Hou know, several years ago, I was in #ew Hork ;ity autographing the first ook that I had written. !nd while sitting there autographing ooks, a demented lack woman came up. +he only "uestion I heard from her was, P!re you &artin -uther Ling?P !nd I was looking down writing, and I said, PHes.P !nd the ne,t minute I felt something eating on my chest. Before I knew it I had een sta ed y this demented woman. I was rushed to 5arlem 5ospital. It was a dark 4aturday afternoon. !nd that lade had gone through, and the N9rays revealed that the tip of the lade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. !nd once that$s punctured, your drowned in your own lood 99 that$s the end of you. It came out in the #ew Hork +imes the ne,t morning, that if I had merely snee3ed, I would have died. Well, a out four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had een opened, and the lade had een taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. +hey allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, ut one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the %resident and the Iice9%resident. I$ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I$d received a visit and a letter from the Governor of #ew Hork, ut I$ve forgotten what that letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White %lains 5igh 4chool. !nd I looked at that letter, and I$ll never forget it. It said simply, 2ear 2r. Ling, I am a ninth9grade student at the White %lains 5igh 4chool.P !nd she said, While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I$m a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. !nd I read that if you had snee3ed, you would have died. !nd I$m simply writing you to say that I$m so happy that you didn$t snee3e. !nd I want to say tonight 99 I want to say tonight that I too am happy that I didn$t snee3e. Because if I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have een around here in 'A(/, when students all over the 4outh started sitting9in at lunch counters. !nd I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the est in the !merican dream, and taking the whole nation ack to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep y the =ounding =athers in the 2eclaration of Independence and the ;onstitution. If I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have een around here in 'A(', when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in inter9state travel. If I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have een around here in 'A(., when #egroes in !l any, Georgia, decided to straighten their acks up. !nd whenever men and women straighten their acks up, they are going somewhere, ecause a man can$t ride your ack unless it is ent. If I had snee3ed 99 If I had snee3ed I wouldn$t have een here in 'A(@, when the lack people of Birmingham, !la ama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and rought into eing the ;ivil ?ights Bill. If I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have had a chance later that year, in !ugust, to try to tell !merica a out a dream that I had had. If I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have een down in 4elma, !la ama, to see the great &ovement there. If I had snee3ed, I wouldn$t have een in &emphis to see a community rally around those rothers and sisters who are suffering. I$m so happy that I didn$t snee3e. !nd they were telling me 99. #ow, it doesn$t matter, now. It really doesn$t matter what happens now. I left !tlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were si, of us. +he pilot said over the pu lic address system, PWe are sorry for the delay, ut we have 2r. &artin -uther Ling on the plane. !nd to e sure that all of the ags were checked, and to e sure that nothing would e wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. !nd we$ve had the plane protected and guarded all 33

night.P !nd then I got into &emphis. !nd some egan to say the threats, or talk a out the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white rothers? Well, I don$t know what will happen now. We$ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn$t matter with me now, ecause I$ve een to the mountaintop. !nd I don$t mind. -ike any ody, I would like to live a long life. -ongevity has its place. But I$m not concerned a out that now. I 1ust want to do God$s will. !nd 5e$s allowed me to go up to the mountain. !nd I$ve looked over. !nd I$ve seen the %romised -and. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised landQ !nd so I$m happy, tonight. I$m not worried a out anything. I$m not fearing any manQ &ine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the -ordQ &artin -uther Ling 4peech 9 Birth of a #ew #ation +he Birth of a #ew #ation y &artin -uther Ling, 7r. &ontgomery, !la ama !pril *, 'AB* I want to preach this morning from the su 1ect, P+he Birth of a #ew #ation.P !nd I would like to use as a asis for our thinking together a story that has long since een stenciled on the mental sheets of succeeding generations. It is the story of the E,odus, the story of the flight of the 5e rew people from the ondage of Egypt, through the wilderness, and finally to the %romised -and. It8s a eautiful story. I had the privilege the other night of seeing the story in movie terms in #ew Hork ;ity, entitled P+he +en ;ommandments,P and I came to see it in all of its eauty 99 the struggle of &oses, the struggle of his devoted followers as they sought to get out of Egypt. !nd they finally moved on to the wilderness and toward the %romised -and. +his is something of the story of every people struggling for freedom. It is the first story of man8s e,plicit "uest for freedom. !nd it demonstrates the stages that seem to inevita ly follow the "uest for freedom. %rior to &arch the si,th, 'AB*, there e,isted a country known as the Gold ;oast. +his country was a colony of the British Empire. +his country was situated in that vast continent known as !frica. I8m sure you know a great deal a out !frica, that continent with some two hundred million people and it e,tends and covers a great deal of territory. +here are many familiar names associated with !frica that you would pro a ly remem er, and there are some countries in !frica that many people never reali3e. =or instance, Egypt is in !frica. !nd there is that vast area of #orth !frica with Egypt and Ethiopia, with +unisia and !lgeria and &orocco and -i ya. +hen you might move to 4outh !frica and you think of that e,tensive territory known as the Union of 4outh !frica. +here is that capital city 7ohannes urg that you read so much a out these days. +hen there is central !frica with places like ?hodesia and the Belgian ;ongo. !nd then there is East !frica with places like Lenya and +anganyika, and places like Uganda and other very powerful countries right there. !nd then you move over to West !frica, where you find the =rench West !frica and #igeria, and -i eria and 4ierra -eone and places like that. !nd it is in this spot, in this section of !frica, that we find the Gold ;oast, there in West !frica. Hou also know that for years and for centuries, !frica has een one of the most e,ploited continents in the history of the world. It8s een the P2ark ;ontinent.P It8s een the continent that has suffered all of the pain and the affliction that could e mustered up y other nations. !nd it is that continent which has e,perienced slavery, which has e,perienced all of the lowest standards that we can think a out, and its 34

een rought into eing y the e,ploitation inflicted upon it y other nations. !nd this country, the Gold ;oast, was a part of this e,tensive continent known as !frica. It8s a little country there in West !frica a out ninety9one thousand miles in area, with a population of a out five million people, a little more than four and a half million. !nd it stands there with its capital city, !ccra. =or years the Gold ;oast was e,ploited and dominated and trampled over. +he first European settlers came in there a out '>>>, the %ortuguese, and they started legitimate trade with the people in the Gold ;oast. +hey started dealing with them with their gold, and in turn they gave them guns and ammunition and gunpowder and that type of thing. Well, pretty soon !merica was discovered a few years later in the fourteen hundreds, and then the British West Indies. !nd all of these growing discoveries rought a out the slave trade. Hou remem er it started in !merica in '('A. !nd there was a ig scram le for power in !frica. With the growth of the slave trade, there came into !frica, into the Gold ;oast in particular, not only the %ortuguese ut also the 4wedes and the 2anes and the 2utch and the British. !nd all of these nations competed with each other to win the power of the Gold ;oast so that they could e,ploit these people for commercial reasons and sell them into slavery. =inally, in ')B/, Britain won out, and she gained possession of the total territorial e,pansion of the Gold ;oast. =rom ')B/ to 'AB*, &arch si,th, the Gold ;oast was a colony of the British Empire. !nd as a colony she suffered all of the in1ustices, all of the e,ploitation, all of the humiliation that comes as a result of colonialism. But like all slavery, like all domination, like all e,ploitation, it came to the point that the people got tired of it. !nd that seems to e the long story of history. +here seems to e a thro ing desire, there seems to e an internal desire for freedom within the soul of every man. !nd it8s there 99 it might not reak forth in the eginning, ut eventually it reaks out &en reali3e that freedom is something asic, and to ro a man of his freedom is to take from him the essential asis of his manhood. +o take from him his freedom is to ro him of something of God8s image. +o paraphrase the words of 4hakespeare8s 6thelloM Who steals my purse steals trash0 <tis something, nothing0 twas mine, <tis his, has een the slave of thousands0 ut he who filches from me my freedom ro s me of that which not enriches him, ut makes me poor indeed. +here is something in the soul that cries out for freedom. +here is something deep down within the very soul of man that reaches out for ;anaan. &en cannot e satisfied with Egypt. +hey tried to ad1ust to it for awhile. &any men have vested interests in Egypt, and they are slow to leave. Egypt makes it profita le to them0 some people profit y Egypt. +he vast ma1ority, the masses of people never profit y Egypt, and they are never content with it. !nd eventually they rise up and egin to cry out for ;anaan8s land. !nd so these people got tired. It had a long history. !s far ack as ')>>, the chiefs themselves of the Gold ;oast rose up and came together and revolted against the British Empire and the other powers that were in e,istence at that time dominating the Gold ;oast. +hey revolted, saying that they wanted to govern themselves. But these powers clamped down on them, and the British said that we will not let you go. ! out 'A/A, a young man was orn on the twelfth of 4eptem er. 5istory didn8t know at that time what that young man had in his mind. 5is mother and father, illiterate, not a part of the powerful tri al life of !frica, not chiefs at all, ut hum le people. !nd that oy grew up. 5e went to school at !chimota for a while in !frica, and then he finished there with honors and decided to work his way to !merica. !nd he landed to !merica one day with a out fifty dollars in his pocket in terms of pounds, getting ready to get an education. !nd he went down to %ennsylvania, to -incoln University. 5e started studying there, and he started reading the great insights of the philosophers, he started reading the great insights of the ages. !nd he finished there and took his theological degree there and preached awhile around %hiladelphia and 35

other areas as he was in the country. !nd went over to the University of %ennsylvania and took up a masters there in philosophy and sociology. !ll the years that he stood in !merica, he was poor, he had to work hard. 5e says in his auto iography how he worked as a ellhop in hotels, as a dishwasher, and during the summer how he worked as a waiter trying to struggle through school. PI want to go ack home. I want to go ack to West !frica, the land of my people, my native land +here is some work to e done there.P 5e got a ship and went to -ondon and stopped for a while y -ondon 4chool of Economy and picked up another degree there. +hen while in -ondon, he started thinking a out %an9!fricanism and the pro lem of how to free his people from colonialism. =or as he said, he always reali3ed that colonialism was made for domination and for e,ploitation. It was made to keep a certain group down and e,ploit that group economically for the advantage of another. 5e studied and thought a out all of this, and one day he decided to go ack to !frica. 5e got to !frica and he was immediately elected the e,ecutive secretary of the United %arty of the Gold ;oast. !nd he worked hard, and he started getting a following. !nd the people in this party, the old, the people who had had their hands on the plow for a long time, thought he was pushing a little too fast, and they got a little 1ealous of his influence. and so finally he had to reak from the United %arty of the Gold ;oast, and in 'A>A he organi3ed the ;onvention %eople8s %arty. It was this party that started out working for the independence of the Gold ;oast. 5e started out in a hum le way, urging his people to unite for freedom and urging the officials of the British Empire to give them freedom. +hey were slow to respond, ut the masses of people were with him, and they had united to ecome the most powerful and influential party that had ever een organi3ed in that section of !frica. 5e started writing. !nd his companions with him, and many of them started writing so much that the officials got afraid, and they put them in 1ail. !nd #krumah himself was finally placed in 1ail for several years ecause he was a seditious man, he was an agitator. 5e was imprisoned on the asis of sedition, and he was placed there to stay in prison for many years. But he had inspired some people outside of prison. +hey got together 1ust a few months after he8d een in prison and elected him the prime minister while he was in prison. =or awhile the British officials tried to keep him there, and G edemah says 99 one of his close associates, the &inister of =inance, &r. G edemah 99 said that that night the people were getting ready to go down to the 1ail and get him out. But G edemah said, P+his isn8t the way0 we can8t do it like this. Iiolence will reak out and we will defeat our purpose.P But the British Empire saw that they had etter let him out. !nd in a few hours Lwame #krumah was out of 1ail, the prime minister of the Gold ;oast. 5e was placed there for fifteen years ut he only served eight or nine months, and now he comes out the %rime &inister of the Gold ;oast. !nd this was the struggling that had een going on for years. It was now coming to the point that this little nation was moving toward its independence. +hen came the continual agitation, the continual resistance, so that the British Empire saw that it could no longer rule the Gold ;oast. !nd they agreed that on the si,th of &arch, 'AB*, they would release this nation. +his nation would no longer e a colony of the British Empire, that this nation would e a sovereign nation within the British ;ommonwealth. !ll of this was ecause of the persistent protest, the continual agitation on the part of %rime &inister Lwame #krumah and the other leaders who worked along with him and the masses of people who were willing to follow. 4o that day finally came. It was a great day. +he week ahead was a great week. +hey had een preparing for this day for many years, and now it was here. %eople coming in from all over the world. +hey had started getting in y the second of &arch. 4eventy nations represented to come to say to this new nationM PWe greet you, and we give you our moral support. We hope for you God8s guidance as you move now into the realm of independence.P =rom !merica itself more than a hundred personsM the press, the diplomatic guests, and the prime minister8s guests. !nd oh, it was a eautiful e,perience to see some of 36

the leading persons on the scene of civil rights in !merica on hand to say, PGreetings to you,P as this new nation was orn. -ook over, to my right is !dam %owell, to my left is ;harles 2iggs, to my right again is ?alph Bunche. +o the other side is 5er &a1esty8s =irst &inister of 7amaica, &anning, !m assador 7ones of -i eria. !ll of these people from !merica, &ordecai 7ohnson, 5orace &ann Bond, all of these people 1ust going over to say, PWe want to greet you and we want you to know that you have our moral support as you grow.P +hen you look out and see the vice9president of the United 4tates, you see !. %hilip ?andolph, you see all of the people who have stood in the forefront of the struggle for civil rights over the years, coming over to !frica to say, PWe id you Godspeed.P +his was a great day not only for #krumah, ut for the whole of the Gold ;oast. +hen came +uesday, R&archS the fifth, many events leading up to it. +hat night we walked into the closing of %arliament 99 the closing of the old %arliament, the old %arliament, which was presided over y the British Empire. +he old %arliament which designated colonialism and imperialism. #ow that %arliament is closing. +hat was a great sight and a great picture and a great scene. We sat there that night, 1ust a out five hundred a le to get in there. %eople, thousands and thousands of people waiting outside, 1ust a out five hundred in there, and we were fortunate enough to e sitting there at that moment as guests of the prime minister. !t that hour we noticed %rime &inister #krumah walking in with all of his ministers, with his 1ustices of the 4upreme ;ourt of the Gold ;oast, and with all of the people of the ;onvention %eople8s %arty, the leaders of that party. #krumah came up to make his closing speech to the old Gold ;oast. +here was something old now passing away. +he thing that impressed me more than anything else that night was the fact that when #krumah walked in, and his other ministers who had een in prison with him, they didn8t come in with the crowns and all of the garments of kings, ut they walked in with prison caps and the coats that they had lived with for all of the months that they had een in prison. #krumah stood up and made his closing speech to %arliament with the little cap that he wore in prison for several months and the coat that he wore in prison for several months, and all of his ministers round a out him. +hat was a great hour. !n old %arliament passing away. !nd then at twelve o8clock that night we walked out. !s we walked out we noticed all over the polo grounds almost a half9a9million people. +hey had waited for this hour and this moment for years. !s we walked out of the door and looked at that eautiful uilding, we looked up to the top of it and there was a little flag that had een flowing around the sky for many years. It was the Union 7ack flag of the Gold ;oast, the British flag, you see. But at twelve o8clock that night we saw a little flag coming down, and another flag went up. +he old Union 7ack flag came down, and the new flag of Ghana went up. +his was a new nation now, a new nation eing orn. !nd when %rime &inister #krumah stood up efore his people out in the polo ground and said, PWe are no longer a British colony. We are a free, sovereign people,P all over that vast throng of people we could see tears. !nd I stood there thinking a out so many things. Before I knew it, I started weeping. I was crying for 1oy. !nd I knew a out all of the struggles, and all of the pain, and all of the agony that these people had gone through for this moment. !fter #krumah had made that final speech, it was a out twelve9thirty now. !nd we walked away. !nd we could hear little children si, years old and old people eighty and ninety years old walking the streets of !ccra crying, P=reedomQ =reedomQP +hey couldn8t say it in the sense that we8d say it 99 many of them don8t speak English too well 99 ut they had their accents and it could ring out, P=ree9doomQP +hey were crying it in a sense that they had never heard it efore, and I could hear that old #egro spiritual once more crying outM =ree at lastQ =ree at lastQ Great God !lmighty, I8m free at lastQ 37

+hey were e,periencing that in their very souls. !nd everywhere we turned, we could hear it ringing out from the housetops. We could hear it from every corner, every nook and crook of the communityM P=reedomQ =reedomQP +his was the irth of a new nation. +his was the reaking aloose from Egypt. Wednesday morning the official opening of %arliament was held. +here again we were a le to get on the inside. +here #krumah made his new speech. !nd now the prime minister of the Gold ;oast with no superior, with all of the power that &ac&illan of England has, with all of the power that #ehru of India has 99 now a free nation, now the prime minister of a sovereign nation. +he 2uchess of Lent walked in, the 2uchess of Lent, who represented the :ueen of England, no longer had authority now. 4he was 1ust a passing visitor now. +he night efore, she was the official leader and spokesman for the :ueen, there y the power ehind the throne of the Gold ;oast. But now it8s Ghana. It8s a new nation now, and she8s 1ust an official visitor like &. -. Ling and ?alph Bunche and ;oretta Ling and every ody else, ecause this is a new nation. ! new Ghana has come into eing. !nd now #krumah stands the leader of that great nation. !nd when he drives out, the people standing around the streets of the city after %arliament is open, cry outM P!ll hail, #krumahQP +he name of #krumah crowning around the whole city, every ody crying this name, ecause they knew he had suffered for them, he had sacrificed for them, he8d gone to 1ail for them. +his was the irth of a new nation. +his nation was now out of Egypt and had crossed the ?ed 4ea. #ow it will confront its wilderness. -ike any reaking aloose from Egypt, there is a wilderness ahead. +here is a pro lem of ad1ustment. #krumah reali3es that. +here is always this wilderness standing efore him. =or instance, it8s a one9crop country, cocoa mainly. 4i,ty percent of the cocoa of the world comes from the Gold ;oast, or from Ghana. !nd, in order to make the economic system more sta le, it will e necessary to industriali3e. ;ocoa is too fluctuating to ase a whole economy on that, so there is the necessity of industriali3ing. #krumah said to me that one of the first things that he will do is to work toward industriali3ation. !nd also he plans to work toward the whole pro lem of increasing the cultural standards of the community. 4till ninety percent of the people are illiterate, and it is necessary to lift the whole cultural standard of the community in order to make it possi le to stand up in the free world. Hes, there is a wilderness ahead, though it is my hope that even people from !merica will go to !frica as immigrants, right there to the Gold ;oast, and lend their technical assistance, for there is great need and there are rich opportunities there. ?ight now is the time that !merican #egroes can lend their technical assistance to a growing new nation. I was very happy to see already people who have moved in and making good. +he son of the late president of Bennett ;ollege, 2r. 7ones, is there, who started an insurance company and making good, going to the top. ! doctor from Brooklyn, #ew Hork, had 1ust come in that week and his wife is also a dentist, and they are living there now, going in there and working, and the people love them. +here will e hundreds and thousands of people, I8m sure, going over to make for the growth of this new nation. !nd #krumah made it very clear to me that he would welcome any persons coming there as immigrants and to live there. #ow don8t think that ecause they have five million people the nation can8t grow, that that8s a small nation to e overlooked. #ever forget the fact that when !merica was orn in '**(, when it received its independence from the British Empire, there were fewer, less than four million people in !merica, and today it8s more than a hundred and si,ty million. 4o never underestimate a people ecause it8s small now. !merica was smaller than Ghana when it was orn. +here is a great day ahead. +he future is on its side. It8s going now through the wilderness, ut the %romised -and is ahead. !nd I want to take 1ust a few more minutes as I close to say three or four things that this reminds us of and things that it says to us 99 things that we must never forget as we ourselves find ourselves reaking 38

aloose from an evil Egypt, trying to move through the wilderness toward the promised land of cultural integration. Ghana has something to say to us. It says to us first that the oppressor never voluntarily gives freedom to the oppressed. Hou have to work for it. !nd if #krumah and the people of the Gold ;oast had not stood up persistently, revolting against the system, it would still e a colony of the British Empire. =reedom is never given to any ody, for the oppressor has you in domination ecause he plans to keep you there, and he never voluntarily gives it up. !nd that is where the strong resistance comes. %rivileged classes never give up their privileges without strong resistance. 4o don8t go out this morning with any illusions. 2on8t go ack into your homes and around &ontgomery thinking that the &ontgomery ;ity ;ommission and that all of the forces in the leadership of the 4outh will eventually work out this thing for #egroes, it8s going to work out0 it8s going to roll in on the wheels of inevita ility. If we wait for it to work itself out, it will never e worked out. =reedom only comes through persistent revolt, through persistent agitation, through persistently rising up against the system of evil. +he us protest is 1ust the eginning. Buses are integrated in &ontgomery, ut that is 1ust the eginning. !nd don8t sit down and do nothing now ecause the uses are integrated, ecause, if you stop now, we will e in the dungeons of segregation and discrimination for another hundred years, and our children and our children8s children will suffer all of the ondage that we have lived under for years. It never comes voluntarily. We8ve got to keep on keeping on in order to gain freedom. It never comes like that. It would e fortunate if the people in power had sense enough to go on and give up, ut they don8t do it like that. It is not done voluntarily, ut it is done through the pressure that comes a out from people who are oppressed. If there had not een a Gandhi in India with all of his no le followers, India would have never een free. If there had not een an #krumah and his followers in Ghana, Ghana would still e a British colony. If there had not een a olitionists in !merica, oth #egro and white, we might still stand today in the dungeons of slavery. !nd then ecause there have een, in every period, there are always those people in every period of human history who don8t mind getting their necks cut off, who don8t mind eing persecuted and discriminated and kicked a out, ecause they know that freedom is never given out, ut it comes through the persistent and the continual agitation and revolt on the part of those who are caught in the system. Ghana teaches us that. It says to us another thing. It reminds us of the fact that a nation or a people can reak aloose from oppression without violence. #krumah says in the first two pages of his auto iography, which was pu lished on the si,th of &arch 99 a great ook which you ought to read 99 he said that he had studied the social systems of social philosophers and he started studying the life of Gandhi and his techni"ues. !nd he said that in the eginning he could not see how they could ever get aloose from colonialism without armed revolt, without armies and ammunition, rising up. +hen he says after he continued to study Gandhi and continued to study this techni"ue, he came to see that the only way was through nonviolent positive action. !nd he called his program Ppositive action.P !nd it8s a eautiful thing, isn8t it? +hat here is a nation that is now free, and it is free without rising up with arms and with ammunition. It is free through nonviolent means. Because of that the British Empire will not have the itterness for Ghana that she has for ;hina, so to speak. Because of that, when the British Empire leaves Ghana, she leaves with a different attitude than she would have left with if she had een driven out y armies. We8ve got to revolt in such a way that after revolt is over we can live with people as their rothers and their sisters. 6ur aim must never e to defeat them or humiliate them. 6n the night of the 4tate Ball, standing up talking with some people, &ordecai 7ohnson called my attention to the fact that %rime &inister Lwame #krumah was there dancing with the 2uchess of Lent. !nd I said, PIsn8t this something? 5ere is the once9serf, the once9slave, now dancing with the lord on an e"ual plane.P !nd that is done ecause there is no itterness. +hese two nations will e a le to live together and work together ecause the reaking aloose was through nonviolence and not through 39

violence. +he aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the eloved community. +he aftermath of nonviolence is redemption. +he aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation. +he aftermath of violence however, are emptiness and itterness. +his is the thing I8m concerned a out. -et us fight passionately and unrelentingly for the goals of 1ustice and peace, ut let8s e sure that our hands are clean in this struggle. -et us never fight with falsehood and violence and hate and malice, ut always fight with love, so that, when the day comes that the walls of segregation have completely crum led in &ontgomery. that we will e a le to live with people as their rothers and sisters. 6h, my friends, our aim must e not to defeat &r. Engelhardt, not to defeat &r. 4ellers and &r. Gayle and &r. %arks. 6ur aim must e to defeat the evil that8s in them. But our aim must e to win the friendship of &r. Gayle and &r. 4ellers and &r. Engelhardt. We must come to the point of seeing that our ultimate aim is to live with all men as rothers and sisters under God and not e their enemies or anything that goes with that type of relationship. !nd this is one thing that Ghana teaches usM that you can reak aloose from evil through nonviolence, through a lack of itterness. #krumah says in his ookM PWhen I came out of prison, I was not itter toward Britain. I came out merely with the determination to free my people from the colonialism and imperialism that had een inflicted upon them y the British. But I came out with no itterness.P !nd, ecause of that, this world will e a etter place in which to live. +here8s another thing that Ghana reminds us. I8m coming to the conclusion now. Ghana reminds us that freedom never comes on a silver platter. It8s never easy. Ghana reminds us that whenever you reak out of Egypt, you etter get ready for stiff acks. Hou etter get ready for some homes to e om ed. Hou etter get ready for some churches to e om ed. Hou etter get ready for a lot of nasty things to e said a out you, ecause you$re getting out of Egypt, and, whenever you reak aloose from Egypt, the initial response of the Egyptian is itterness. It never comes with ease. It comes only through the hardness and persistence of life. Ghana reminds us of that. Hou etter get ready to go to prison. When I looked out and saw the prime minister there with his prison cap on that night, that reminded me of that fact, that freedom never comes easy. It comes through hard la or and it comes through toil. It comes through hours of despair and disappointment. +hat8s the way it goes. +here is no crown without a cross. I wish we could get to Easter without going to Good =riday, ut history tells us that we got to go y Good =riday efore we can get to Easter. +hat8s the long story of freedom, isn8t it? Before you get to ;anaan, you8ve got a ?ed 4ea to confront. Hou have a hardened heart of a pharaoh to confront. Hou have the prodigious hilltops of evil in the wilderness to confront. !nd,even when you get up to the %romised -and, you have giants in the land. +he eautiful thing a out it is that there are a few people who8ve een over in the land. +hey have spied enough to say, PEven though the giants are there we can possess the land, ecause we got the internal fi er to stand up amid anything that we have to face.P +he road to freedom is a difficult, hard road. It always makes for temporary set acks. !nd those people who tell you today that there is more tension in &ontgomery than there has ever een are telling you right. Whenever you get out of Egypt, you always confront a little tension, you always confront a little temporary set ack. If you didn8t confront that you8d never get out. Hou must remem er that the tensionless period that we like to think of was the period when the #egro was complacently ad1usted to segregation, discrimination, insult, and e,ploitation. !nd the period of tension is the period when the #egro has decided to rise up and reak aloose from that. !nd this is the peace that we are seekingM not an old negative o no,ious peace which is merely the a sence of tension, ut a positive, lasting peace, which is the presence of rotherhood and 1ustice. !nd it is never rought a out without this temporary period of tension. +he road to freedom is difficult. 40

But finally Ghana tells us that the forces of the universe are on the side of 1ustice. +hat8s what it tells us, now. Hou can interpret Ghana any kind of way you want to, ut Ghana tells me that the forces of the universe are on the side of 1ustice. +hat night when I saw that old flag coming down and the new flag coming up, I saw something else. +hat wasn8t 1ust an Ephemeral, evanescent event appearing on the stage of history, ut it was an event with eternal meaning, for it sym oli3es something. +hat thing sym oli3ed to me that an old order is passing away and a new order is coming into eing. !n old order of colonialism, of segregation, of discrimination is passing away now, and a new order of 1ustice and freedom and goodwill is eing orn. +hat8s what it saidM that somehow the forces of 1ustice stand on the side of the universe, and that you can8t ultimately trample over God8s children and profit y it. I want to come ack to &ontgomery now, ut I must stop y -ondon for a moment, for -ondon reminds me of something. I never will forget the day we went into -ondon. +he ne,t day we started moving around this great city, the only city in the world that is almost as large as #ew Hork ;ity. 6ver eight million people in -ondon, a out eight million, three hundred thousand0 #ew Hork a out eight million, five hundred thousand. -ondon larger in area than #ew Hork, though. 4tanding in -ondon is an ama3ing picture. !nd I never will forget the e,perience I had, the thoughts that came to my mind. We went to Buckingham %alace, and I looked there at all of Britain, at all of the pomp and circumstance of royalty. !nd I thought a out all of the "ueens and kings that had passed through here. -ook at the eauty of the changing of the guards and all of the guards with their eautiful horses. It8s a eautiful sight. &ove on from there and go over to %arliament. &ove into the 5ouse of -ords and the 5ouse of ;ommons. +here with all of its eauty standing up efore the world is one of the most eautiful sights in the world. +hen I remem er, we went on over to Westminster ! ey. !nd I thought a out several things when we went in this great church, this great cathedral, the center of the ;hurch of England. We walked around and went to the tom s of the kings and "ueens uried there. &ost of the kings and "ueens of England are uried right there in the Westminster ! ey. !nd I walked around. 6n the one hand I en1oyed and appreciated the great gothic architecture of that massive cathedral. I stood there in awe thinking a out the greatness of God and man8s fee le attempt to reach up for God. !nd I thought something else 99 I thought a out the ;hurch of England. &y mind went ack to Buckingham %alace, and I said that this is the sym ol of a dying system. +here was a day that the "ueens and kings of England could oast that the sun never sets on the British Empire, a day when she occupied the greater portion of !ustralia, the greater portion of ;anada. +here was a day when she ruled most of ;hina, most of !frica, and all of India. I started thinking a out this empire. I started thinking a out the fact that she ruled over India one day. &ahatma Gandhi stood there at every hand, trying to get the freedom of his people, and they never owed to it. +hey never, they decided that they were going to stand up and hold India in humiliation and in colonialism many, many years. I remem er we passed y +en 2owning 4treet. +hat8s the place where the prime minister of England lives. !nd I remem er that a few years ago a man lived there y the name of Winston ;hurchill. 6ne day he stood up efore the world and said, PI did not ecome his &a1esty8s =irst &inister to preside over the li"uidation of the British Empire.P !nd I thought a out the fact that a few weeks ago a man y the name of !nthony Eden lived there. !nd out of all of his knowledge of the &iddle East, he decided to rise up and march his armies with the forces of Israel and =rance into Egypt, and there they confronted their doom, ecause they were revolting against world opinion. Egypt, a little country0 Egypt, a country with no military power. +hey could have easily defeated Egypt, ut they did not reali3e that they were fighting more than Egypt. +hey were attacking world opinion0 they were fighting the whole !sian9!frican loc, which is the loc that now thinks and moves and determines the course of the history of the world. I thought of many things. I thought of the fact that the British Empire e,ploited India. +hink a out itQ ! nation with four hundred million people and the British e,ploited them so much that out of a population of four hundred million, three hundred and fifty million made an annual income of less than fifty dollars a 41

year. +wenty9five of that had to e used for ta,es and the other things of life. I thought a out dark !frica, and how the people there, if they can make a hundred dollars a year they are living very well, they think. +wo shillings a day 99 one shilling is fourteen cents, two shillings, twenty9eight cents 99 that8s a good wage. +hat8s ecause of the domination of the British Empire. !ll of these things came to my mind, and when I stood there in Westminster ! ey with all of its eauty, and I thought a out all of the eautiful hymns and anthems that the people would go in there to sing. !nd yet the ;hurch of England never took a stand against this system.+he ;hurch of England sanctioned it +he ;hurch of England gave it moral stature. !ll of the e,ploitation perpetuated y the British Empire was sanctioned y the ;hurch of England. But something else came to my mindM God comes in the picture even when the ;hurch won8t take a stand. God has in1ected a principle in this universe. God has said that all men must respect the dignity and worth of all human personality, P!nd if you don8t do that, I will take charge.P It seems this morning that I can hear God speaking. I can hear him speaking throughout the universe, saying, PBe still and know that I am God. !nd if you don8t stop, if you don8t straighten up, if you don8t stop e,ploiting people, I8m going to rise up and reak the ack one of your power. !nd your power will e no moreQP !nd the power of Great Britain is no more. I looked at =rance. I looked at Britain. !nd I thought a out the Britain that could oast, P+he sun never sets on our great Empire.P !nd I said now she had gone to the level that the sun hardly rises on the British Empire 99 ecause it was ased on e,ploitation, ecause the God of the universe eventually takes a stand. !nd I say to you this morning, my friends, rise up and know that, as you struggle for 1ustice, you do not struggle alone, ut God struggles with you. !nd 5e is working every day. 4omehow I can look out, I can look out across the seas and across the universe, and cry out, P&ine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the -ord. 5e is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.P +hen I think a out it, ecause 5is truth is marching on, and I can sing another chorusM P5allelu1ah, glory hallelu1ahQ 5is truth is marching on.P +hen I can hear Isaiah again, ecause it has profound meaning to me, that somehow, PEvery valley shall e e,alted, and every hill shall e made low0 the crooked places shall e made straight, and the rough places plain0 and the glory of the -ord shall e revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.P +hat8s the eauty of this thingM all flesh shall see it together. #ot some from the heights of %ark 4treet and others from the dungeons of slum areas. #ot some from the pinnacles of the British Empire and some from the dark deserts of !frica. #ot some from inordinate, superfluous wealth and others from a 1ect, deadening poverty. #ot some white and not some lack, not some yellow and not some rown, ut all flesh shall see it together. +hey shall see it from &ontgomery. +hey shall see it from #ew Hork. +hey shall see it from Ghana. +hey shall see it from ;hina. =or I can look out and see a great num er, as 7ohn saw, marching into the great eternity, ecause God is working in this world, and at this hour, and at this moment. !nd God grants that we will get on oard and start marching with God, ecause we got orders now to reak down the ondage and the walls of colonialism, e,ploitation, and imperialism, to reak them down to the point that no man will trample over another man, ut that all men will respect the dignity and worth of all human personality. !nd then we will e in ;anaan8s freedom land. &oses might not get to see ;anaan, ut his children will see it. 5e even got to the mountaintop enough to see it and that assured him that it was coming. But the eauty of the thing is that there8s always a 7oshua to take up his work and take the children on in. !nd it8s there waiting with its milk and honey, and with all of the ountiful eauty that God has in store for 5is children. 6h, what e,ceedingly marvelous things 42

God has in store for us. Grant that we will follow 5im enough to gain them. 6 God, our gracious 5eavenly =ather, help us to see the insights that come from this new nation. 5elp us to follow +hee and all of +hy creative works in this world, and that somehow we will discover that we are made to live together as rothers !nd that it will come in this generationM the day when all men will recogni3e the fatherhood of God and the rotherhood of man. !men. &artin -uther Ling 4peech 9 Birth of a #ew #ation &artin -uther Ling 4peech 9 Where do we go from here 4outhern ;hristian -eadership ;onference !tlanta, Georgia '( !ugust 'A(* #ow, in order to answer the "uestion, PWhere do we go from here?P which is our theme, we must first honestly recogni3e where we are now. When the ;onstitution was written, a strange formula to determine ta,es and representation declared that the #egro was (/ percent of a person. +oday another curious formula seems to declare he is B/ percent of a person. 6f the good things in life, the #egro has appro,imately one half those of whites. 6f the ad things of life, he has twice those of whites. +hus half of all #egroes live in su standard housing. !nd #egroes have half the income of whites. When we view the negative e,periences of life, the #egro has a dou le share. +here are twice as many unemployed. +he rate of infant mortality among #egroes is dou le that of whites and there are twice as many #egroes dying in Iietnam as whites in proportion to their si3e in the population. In other spheres, the figures are e"ually alarming. In elementary schools, #egroes lag one to three years ehind whites, and their segregated schools receive su stantially less money per student than the white schools. 6ne twentieth as many #egroes as whites attend college. 6f employed #egroes, *B percent hold menial 1o s. +his is where we are. Where do we go from here? =irst, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amidst a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassaila le and ma1estic sense of values. We must no longer e ashamed of eing lack. +he 1o of arousing manhood within a people that have een taught for so many centuries that they are no ody is not easy. 2epiction of Blackness and #egro ;ontri utions Even semantics have conspired to make that which is lack seem ugly and degrading. In ?oget$s +hesaurus there are './ synonyms for lackness and at least (/ of them are offensive, as for e,ample, lot, soot, grim, devil and foul. !nd there are some '@> synonyms for whiteness and all are favora le, e,pressed in such words as purity, cleanliness, chastity and innocence. ! white lie is etter than a lack lie. +he most degenerate mem er of a family is a P lack sheep.P 6ssie 2avis has suggested that may e the English language should e reconstructed so that teachers will not e forced to teach the #egro child (/ ways to despise himself, and there y perpetuate his false sense of inferiority and the white child '@> ways to adore him, and there y perpetuate his false sense of superiority. +he tendency to ignore the #egro$s contri ution to !merican life and to strip him of his personhood is as old as the earliest history hooks and as contemporary as the morning$s newspaper. +o upset this cultural homicide, the #egro must rise up with an affirmation of his own 6lympian manhood. !ny movement for the #egro$s freedom that overlooks this necessity is only waiting to e uried. !s long as the mind is enslaved, the ody can never e free. %sychological freedom, a firm sense of self9esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery. #o -incoln an Emancipation %roclamation or 7ohnsonian ;ivil ?ights Bill can totally ring this kind of freedom. +he #egro will only e free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own eing and signs with the pen and ink of assertive manhood his own Emancipation %roclamation. !nd, with a spirit straining toward true self9esteem, the #egro must 43

oldly throw off the manacles of self9a negation and say to himself and to the world, PI am some ody. I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and no le history. 5ow painful and e,ploited that history has een. Hes, I was a slave through my foreparents and I am not ashamed of that. I$m ashamed of the people who were so sinful to make me a slave.P Hes, we must stand up and say, PI$m lack and I$m eautiful,P and this self9affirmation is the lack man$s need, made compelling y the white man$s crimes against him. Basic ;hallenges another asic challenge is to discover how to organi3e our strength in terms of economic and political power. #o one can deny that the #egro is in dire need of this kind of legitimate power. Indeed, one of the great pro lems that the #egro confronts is his lack of power. =rom old plantations of the 4outh to newer ghettos of the #orth, the #egro has een confined to a life of voicelessness and powerlessness. 4tripped of the right to make decisions concerning his life and destiny he has een su 1ect to the authoritarian and sometimes whimsical decisions of this white power structure. +he plantation and ghetto were created y those who had power. oth to confine those who had no power and to perpetuate their powerlessness. +he pro lem of transforming the ghetto, therefore, is a pro lem of power9confrontation of the forces of power demanding change and the forces of power dedicated to the preserving of the status "uo. #ow power properly understood is nothing ut the a ility to achieve purpose. It is the strength re"uired to ring a out social, political and economic change. Walter ?euther defined power one day. 5e said, P%ower is the a ility of a la or union like the U.!.W. to make the most powerful corporation in the world, General &otors, say $Hes$ when it wants to say $#o.$ +hat$s power.P #ow a lot of us are preachers, and all of us have our moral convictions and concerns, and so often have pro lems with power. +here is nothing wrong with power if power is used correctly. Hou see, what happened is that some of our philosophers got off ase. !nd one of the great pro lems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually een contrasted as opposites 9 polar oppositesTTso that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love. It was this misinterpretation that caused #iet3sche, who was a philosopher of the will to power, to re1ect the ;hristian concept of love. It was this same misinterpretation which induced ;hristian theologians to re1ect the #iet3schean philosophy of the will to power in the name of the ;hristian idea of love. #ow, we$ve got to get this thing right. What is needed is a reali3ation that power without love is reckless and a usive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. %ower at its est is love implementing the demands of 1ustice, and 1ustice at its est is power correcting everything that stands against love. !nd this is what we must see as we move on. What has happened is that we have had it wrong and confused in our own country, and this has led #egro !mericans in the past to seek their goals through power devoid of love and conscience. +his is leading a few e,tremists today to advocate for #egroes the same destructive and conscienceless power that they have 1ustly a horred in whites. It is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the ma1or crisis of our times. 2eveloping a %rogram? We must develop a program that will drive the nation to a guaranteed annual income. #ow, early in this century this proposal would have een greeted with ridicule and denunciation, as destructive of initiative and responsi ility. !t that time economic status was considered the measure of the individual$s a ility and talents. !nd, in the thinking of that day, the a sence of worldly goods indicated a want of industrious ha its and moral fi er. We$ve come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the lind operation of our economic system. #ow we reali3e that dislocations in the market operations of our 44

economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and ind them in constant or fre"uent unemployment against their will. +oday the poor are less often dismissed, I hope, from our consciences y eing randed as inferior or incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and e,pands, it does not eliminate all poverty. +he pro lem indicates that our emphasis must e twofold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. %eople must e made consumers y one method or the other. 6nce they are placed in this position we need to e concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. #ew forms of work that enhance the social good will have to e devised for those for whom traditional 1o s are not availa le. In I)*A 5enry George anticipated this state of affairs when he wrote in %rogress and %overtyM +he fact is that the work which improves the condition of mankind, the work which e,tends knowledge and increases power and enriches literature and elevates thought, is not done to secure a living. It is not the work of slaves driven to their tasks either y the task, y the taskmaster, or y anirnal JsicK necessity. It is the work of men who somehow find a form of work that rings a security for its own sake and a state of society where want is a olished. Work of this sort could e enormously increased, and we are likely to find that the pro lems of housing and education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will themselves e affected if poverty is first a olished. +he poor transformed into purchasers will do a great deal on their own to alter housing decay. #egroes who have a dou le disa ility will have a greater effect on discrimination when they have the additional weapon of cash to use in their struggle. Beyond these advantages, a host of positive psychological changes inevita ly will result from widespread economic security. +he dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has the means to seek self9improvement. %ersonal conflicts among hus ands, wives and children will diminish when the un1ust measurement of human worth on the scale of dollars is eliminated . #ow our country can do this. 7ohn Lenneth Gal raith said that a guaranteed annual income could e done for a out twenty illion dollars a year. !nd I say to you today, that if our nation can spend thirty9five illion dollars a year to fight an un1ust, evil war in Iietnam, and twenty illion dollars to put a man on the moon, it can spend illions of dollars to put God$s children on their own two feet right here on earth. ;ommitment +o #onviolence #ow, let me say riefly that we must reaffirm our commitment to nonviolence. I want to stress this. +he futility of violence in the struggle for racial 1ustice has een tragically etched in all the recent #egro riots. Hesterday, I tried to analy3e the riots and deal with their causes. +oday I want to give the other side. +here is certainly something painfully sad a out a riot. 6ne sees screaming youngsters and angry adults fighting hopelessly and aimlessly against impossi le odds. !nd deep down within them, you can even see a desire for self9destruction, a kind of suicidal longing. 6ccasionally #egroes contend that the 'A(B Watts riot and the other riots in various cities represented effective civil rights action. But those who e,press this view always end up with stum ling words when asked what concrete gains have een won as a result. !t est, the riots have produced a little additional antipoverty money allotted y frightened government officials, and a few water9sprinklers to cool the children of the ghettos. It is something like improving the food in the prison while the people remain securely incarcerated ehind ars. #owhere have the riots won any concrete improvement such as have the organi3ed protest demonstrations. When one tries to pin down advocates of violence as to what acts would e effective, the answers are latantly illogical. 4ometimes they talk of overthrowing racist state 45

and local governments and they talk a out guerrilla warfare. +hey fail to see that no internal revolution has ever succeeded in overthrowing a government y violence unless the government had already lost the allegiance and effective control of its armed forces. !nyone in his right mind knows that this will not happen in the United 4tates. In a violent racial situation, the power structure has the local police, the state troopers, the #ational Guard and, finally, the !rmy to call onTTall of which are predominantly white. =urthermore, few if any violent revolutions have een successful unless the violent minority had the sympathy and support of the nonresistant ma1ority. ;astro may have had only a few ;u ans actually fighting with him up in the hills, ut he could never have overthrown the Batista regime unless he had the sympathy of the vast ma1ority of ;u an people. It is perfectly clear that a violent revolution on the part of !merican lacks would find no sympathy and support from the white population and very little from the ma1ority of the #egroes themselves. +his is no time for romantic illusions and empty philosophical de ates a out freedom. +his is a time for action. What is needed is a strategy for change, a tactical program that will ring the #egro into the mainstream of !merican life as "uickly as possi le. 4o far, this has only een offered y the nonviolent movement. Without recogni3ing this we will end up with solutions that don$t solve, answers that don$t answer and e,planations that don$t e,plain. !nd so I say to you today that I still stand y nonviolence. !nd I am still convinced that it is the most potent weapon availa le to the #egro in his struggle for 1ustice in this country. !nd the other thing is that I am concerned a out a etter world. I$m concerned a out 1ustice. I$m concerned a out rotherhood. I$m concerned a out truth. !nd when one is concerned a out these, he can never advocate violence. =or through violence you may murder a murderer ut you can$t murder. +hrough violence you may murder a liar ut you can$t esta lish truth. +hrough violence you may murder a hater, ut you can$t murder hate. 2arkness cannot put out darkness. 6nly light can do that. !nd I say to you, I have also decided to stick to love. =or I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind$s pro lems. !nd I$m going to talk a out it everywhere I go. I know it isn$t popular to talk a out it in some circles today. I$m not talking a out emotional osh when I talk a out love, I$m talking a out a strong, demanding love. !nd I have seen too much hate. I$ve seen too much hate on the faces of sheriffs in the 4outh. I$ve seen hate on the faces of too many Llansmen and too many White ;iti3ens ;ouncilors in the 4outh to want to hate myself, ecause every time I see it, I know that it does something to their faces and their personalities and I say to myself that hate is too great a urden to ear. I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. !nd the eautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, ecause 7ohn was right, God is love. 5e who hates does not know God, ut he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality. I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk a out PWhere do we go from here,P that we honestly face the fact that the &ovement must address itself to the "uestion of restructuring the whole of !merican society. +here are forty million poor people here. !nd one day we must ask the "uestion, PWhy are there forty million poor people in !merica?P !nd when you egin to ask that "uestion, you are raising "uestions a out the economic system, a out a roader distri ution of wealth. When you ask that "uestion, you egin to "uestion the capitalistic economy. !nd I$m simply saying that more and more, we$ve got to egin to ask "uestions a out the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged eggars in life$s market place. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces eggars needs restructuring. It means that "uestions must e raised. Hou see, my friends, when you deal with this, you egin to ask the "uestion, PWho owns the oil?P Hou egin to ask the "uestion, PWho owns the iron ore?P Hou egin to ask the "uestion, PWhy is it that people have to pay water ills in a world that is two thirds water?P +hese are "uestions that must e asked. ! out ;ommunism 46

#ow, don$t think that you have me in a P indP today. I$m not talking a out ;ommunism. What I$m saying to you this morning is that ;ommunism forgets that life is individual. ;apitalism forgets that life is social, and the Lingdom of Brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of ;ommunism nor the antithesis of capitalism ut in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that com ines the truths of oth. #ow, when I say "uestion the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the pro lem of racism, the pro lem of economic e,ploitation, and the pro lem of war are all tied together. +hese are the triple evils that are interrelated. If you will let me e a preacher 1ust a little it 9 6ne night, a 1uror came to 7esus and he wanted to know what he could do to e saved. 7esus didn$t get ogged down in the kind of isolated approach of what he shouldn$t do. 7esus didn$t say, P#ow #icodemus, you must stop lying.P 5E didn$t say, P#icodemus, you must stop cheating if you are doing that.P 5e didn$t say, P#icodemus, you must not commit adultery.P 5e didn$t say, P#icodemus, now you must stop drinking li"uor if you are doing that e,cessively.P 5e said something altogether different, ecause 7esus reali3ed something asic 9 that if a man will lie, he will steal. !nd if a man will steal, he will kill. 4o instead of 1ust getting ogged down in one thing, 7esus looked at him and said, P#icodemus, you must e orn again.P 5e said, in other words, PHour whole structure must e changed.P ! nation that will keep people in slavery for .>> years will PthingifyP them 9 make them things. +herefore they will e,ploit them, and poor people generally, economically. !nd a nation that will e,ploit economically will have to have foreign investments and everything else, and will have to use its military might to protect them. !ll of these pro lems are tied together. What I am saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, P!merica, you must e orn againQP ;onclusion 4o, I conclude y saying again today that we have a task and let us go out with a Pdivine dissatisfaction.P -et us e dissatisfied until !merica will no longer have a high lood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. -et us e dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort and the inner city of poverty and despair shall e crushed y the attering rams of the forces of 1ustice. R,et us e dissatisfied until those that live on the outskirts of hope are rought into the metropolis of daily security. -et us e dissatisfied until slums are cast into the 1unk heaps of history, and every family is living in a decent sanitary home. -et us e dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will e transformed into right tomorrows of "uality, integrated education. -et us e dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a pro lem ut as an opportunity to participate in the eauty of diversity. -et us e dissatisfied until men and women, however lack they may e, will e 1udged on the asis of the content of their character and not on the asis of the color of their skin. -et us e dissatisfied. -et us e dissatisfied until every state capitol houses a governor who will do 1ustly, who will love mercy and who will walk hum ly with his God. -et us e dissatisfied until from every city hall, 1ustice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. -et us e dissatisfied until that day when the lion and the lam shall lie down together. and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall e afraid. -et us e dissatisfied. !nd men will recogni3e that out of one lood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. -et us e dissatisfied until that day when no ody will shout PWhite %owerQP 9 when no ody will shout PBlack %owerQP 9 ut every ody will talk a out God$s power and human power. I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not always e smooth. +here will still e rocky places of frustration and meandering points of ewilderment. +here will e inevita le set acks here and there. +here will e those moments when the uoyancy of hope will e transformed into the fatigue of despair. 6ur dreams will sometimes e shattered and our ethereal hopes lasted. We may again with tear9drenched 47

eyes have to stand efore the ier of some courageous civil9rights worker whose life will e snuffed out y the dastardly acts of loodthirsty mo s. 2ifficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future. !nd as we continue our charted course, we may gain consolation in the words so no ly left y that great lack ard who was also a great freedom fighter of yesterday, 7ames Weldon 7ohnsonM 4tony the road we trod, Bitter the chastening rod =elt in the days When hope un orn had died. Het with a steady eat, 5ave not our weary feet ;ome to the place =or which our fathers sighed? We have come over the way +hat with tears hath een watered. We have come treading our paths +hrough the lood of the slaughtered, 6ut from the gloomy past, +ill now we stand at last Where the right gleam 6f our right star is cast. -et this affirmation e our ringing cry. It will give us the courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days ecome dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights ecome darker than a thousand midnights, let us remem er that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is a le to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into right tomorrows. -et us reali3e the arc of the moral universe is long ut it ends toward 1ustice. -et us reali3e that William ;ullen Bryant is rightM P+ruth crushed to earth will rise again.P -et us go out reali3ing that the Bi le is rightM PBe not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.P +his is our hope for the future, and with this faith we will e a le to sing in some not too distant tomorrow with a cosmic past tense, PWe have overcome, we have overcome, deep in my heart, I did elieve we would overcome.P &artin -uther Ling 4peech 9 Where do we go from here -oving your Enemies I am forced to preach under something of a handicap this morning. In fact, I had the doctor efore coming to church. !nd he said that it would e est for me to stay in the ed this morning. !nd I insisted that I would have to come to preach. 4o he allowed me to come out with one stipulation, and that is that I would not come in the pulpit until time to preach, and that after, that I would immediately go ack home and get in the ed. 4o I$m going to try to follow his instructions from that point on. I want to use as a su 1ect from which to preach this morning a very familiar su 1ect, and it is familiar to you ecause I have preached from this su 1ect twice efore to my knowing in this pulpit. I try to make it a, something of a custom or tradition to 48

preach from this passage of 4cripture at least once a year, adding new insights that I develop along the way out of new e,periences as I give these messages. !lthough the content is, the asic content is the same, new insights and new e,periences naturally make for new illustrations. 4o I want to turn your attention to this su 1ectM P-oving Hour Enemies.P It$s so asic to me ecause it is a part of my asic philosophical and theological orientation the whole idea of love, the whole philosophy of love. In the fifth chapter of the gospel as recorded y 4aint &atthew, we read these very arresting words flowing from the lips of our -ord and &asterM PHe have heard that it has een said, P+hou shall love thy neigh or, and hate thine enemy.P But I say unto you, -ove your enemies, less them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you0 that ye may e the children of your =ather which is in heaven.P ;ertainly these are great words, words lifted to cosmic proportions. !nd over the centuries, many persons have argued that this is an e,tremely difficult command. &any would go so far as to say that it 1ust isn$t possi le to move out into the actual practice of this glorious command. +hey would go on to say that this is 1ust additional proof that 7esus was an impractical idealist who never "uite came down to earth. 4o the arguments a ound. But far from eing an impractical idealist, 7esus has ecome the practical realist. +he words of this te,t glitter in our eyes with a new urgency. =ar from eing the pious in1unction of a utopian dreamer, this command is an a solute necessity for the survival of our civili3ation. Hes, it is love that will save our world and our civili3ation, love even for enemies. #ow let me hasten to say that 7esus was very serious when he gave this command0 he wasn$t playing. 5e reali3ed that it$s hard to love your enemies. 5e reali3ed that it$s difficult to love those persons who seek to defeat you, those persons who say evil things a out you. 5e reali3ed that it was painfully hard, pressingly hard. But he wasn$t playing. !nd we cannot dismiss this passage as 1ust another e,ample of 6riental hyper ole, 1ust a sort of e,aggeration to get over the point. +his is a asic philosophy of all that we hear coming from the lips of our &aster. Because 7esus wasn$t playing0 ecause he was serious. We have the ;hristian and moral responsi ility to seek to discover the meaning of these words, and to discover how we can live out this command, and why we should live y this command. #ow first let us deal with this "uestion, which is the practical "uestionM 5ow do you go a out loving your enemies? I think the first thing is thisM In order to love your enemies, you must egin y analy3ing self. !nd I$m sure that seems strange to you, that I start out telling you this morning that you love your enemies y eginning with a look at self. It seems to me that that is the first and foremost way to come to an ade"uate discovery to the how of this situation. #ow, I$m aware of the fact that some people will not like you, not ecause of something you have done to them, ut they 1ust won$t like you. I$m "uite aware of that. 4ome people aren?t going to like the way you walk0 some people aren$t going to like the way you talk. 4ome people aren$t going to like you ecause you can do your 1o etter than they can do theirs. 4ome people aren$t going to like you ecause other people like you, and ecause you$re popular, and ecause you$re well9liked, they aren$t going to like you. 4ome people aren$t going to like you ecause your hair is a little shorter than theirs or your hair is a little longer than theirs. 4ome people aren$t going to like you ecause your skin is a little righter than theirs0 and others aren$t going to like you ecause your skin is a little darker than theirs. 4o that some people aren$t going to like you. +hey$re going to dislike you, not ecause of something that you$ve done to them, ut ecause of various 1ealous reactions and other reactions that are so prevalent in human nature. But after looking at these things and admitting these things, we must face the fact that an individual might dislike us ecause of something that we$ve done deep down in the past, some personality attri ute that we possess, something that we$ve done deep down in the past and we$ve forgotten a out it0 ut it was that something that aroused the hate response within the individual. +hat is why I say, egin with yourself. +here might e something within you that arouses the tragic hate response in the other individual. +his is true in our international struggle. We look at the struggle, the ideological struggle etween communism on the one hand and democracy on the other, and we see the struggle etween !merica and ?ussia. #ow certainly, we can never give our allegiance to the ?ussian way of life, to the communistic way of life, ecause communism is ased on an ethical relativism and 49

a metaphysical materialism that no ;hristian can accept. When we look at the methods of communism, a philosophy where somehow the end 1ustifies the means, we cannot accept that ecause we elieve as ;hristians that the end is pre9e,istent in the means. But in spite of all of the weaknesses and evils inherent in communism, we must at the same time see the weaknesses and evils within democracy. 2emocracy is the greatest form of government to my mind that man has ever conceived, ut the weakness is that we have never touched it. Isn?t it true that we have often taken necessities from the masses to give lu,uries to the classes? Isn$t it true that we have often in our democracy trampled over individuals and races with the iron feet of oppression? Isn$t it true that through our Western powers we have perpetuated colonialism and imperialism? !nd all of these things must e taken under consideration as we look at ?ussia. We must face the fact that the rhythmic eat of the deep rum lings of discontent from !sia and !frica is at ottom a revolt against the imperialism and colonialism perpetuated y Western civili3ation all these many years. +he success of communism in the world today is due to the failure of democracy to live up to the no le ideals and principles inherent in its system. !nd this is what 7esus means when he saidM P5ow is it that you can see the mote in your rother$s eye and not see the eam in your own eye?P 6r to put it in &offatt?s translationM P5ow is it that you see the splinter in your rother$s eye and fail to see the plank in your own eye?P !nd this is one of the tragedies of human nature. 4o we egin to love our enemies and love those persons that hate us whether in collective life or individual life y looking at ourselves. ! second thing that an individual must do in seeking to love his enemy is to discover the element of good in his enemy, and everytime you egin to hate that person and think of hating that person, reali3e that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over9 alance the ad points. I?ve said to you on many occasions that each of us is something of a schi3ophrenic personality. We?re split up and divided against ourselves. !nd there is something of a civil war going on within all of our lives. +here is a recalcitrant 4outh of our soul revolting against the #orth of our soul. !nd there is this continual struggle within the very structure of every individual life. +here is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with 6vid, the -atin poet, PI see and approve the etter things of life, ut the evil things I do.P +here is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with %lato that the human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions. +here is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Goethe, P+here is enough stuff in me to make oth a gentleman and a rogue.P +here is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with !postle %aul, PI see and approve the etter things of life, ut the evil things I do.P 4o somehow the PisnessP of our present nature is out of harmony with the eternal PoughtnessP that forever confronts us. !nd this simply means thisM +hat within the est of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals. +he person who hates you most has some good in him0 even the nation that hates you most has some good in it0 even the race that hates you most has some good in it. !nd when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls Pthe image of God,P you egin to love him in spite of. #o matter what he does, you see God?s image there. +here is an element of goodness that he can never sluff off. 2iscover the element of good in your enemy. !nd as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude. !nother way that you love your enemy is thisM When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it. +here will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped a out you most, the person who has spread false rumors a out you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might e in terms of a recommendation for a 1o 0 it might e in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. +hat?s the time you must do it. +hat is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk a out. It?s not merely an emotional something. -ove is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great eauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to e caught up in that system, you love, ut you seek to defeat 50

the system. +he Greek language, as I?ve said so often efore, is very powerful at this point. It comes to our aid eautifully in giving us the real meaning and depth of the whole philosophy of love. !nd I think it is "uite apropos at this point, for you see the Greek language has three words for love, interestingly enough. It talks a out love as eros. +hat?s one word for love. Eros is a sort of, aesthetic love. %lato talks a out it a great deal in his dialogues, a sort of yearning of the soul for the realm of the gods. !nd it?s come to us to e a sort of romantic love, though it?s a eautiful love. Every ody has e,perienced eros in all of its eauty when you find some individual that is attractive to you and that you pour out all of your like and your love on that individual. +hat is eros, you see, and it?s a powerful, eautiful love that is given to us through all of the eauty of literature0 we read a out it. +hen the Greek language talks a out philia, and that?s another type of love that?s also eautiful. It is a sort of intimate affection etween personal friends. !nd this is the type of love that you have for those persons that you?re friendly with, your intimate friends, or people that you call on the telephone and you go y to have dinner with, and your roommate in college and that type of thing. It$s a sort of reciprocal love. 6n this level, you like a person ecause that person likes you. Hou love on this level, ecause you are loved. Hou love on this level, ecause there?s something a out the person you love that is likea le to you. +his too is a eautiful love. Hou can communicate with a person0 you have certain things in common0 you like to do things together. +his is philia. +he Greek language comes out with another word for love. It is the word agape. !nd agape is more than eros0 agape is more than philia0 agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love0 it$s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. !nd when you rise to love on this level, you egin to love men, not ecause they are likea le, ut ecause God loves them. Hou look at every man, and you love him ecause you know God loves him. !nd he might e the worst person you?ve ever seen. !nd this is what 7esus means, I think, in this very passage when he says, P-ove your enemy.P !nd it?s significant that he does not say, P-ike your enemy.P -ike is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. +here are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don?t like what they do to me. I don?t like what they say a out me and other people. I don?t like their attitudes. I don?t like some of the things they?re doing. I don?t like them. But 7esus says love them. !nd love is greater than like. -ove is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love every ody, ecause God loves them. Hou refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, ecause you have agape in your soul. !nd here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. +his is what 7esus means when he says, P-ove your enemy.P +his is the way to do it. When the opportunity presents itself when you can defeat your enemy, you must not do it. #ow for the few moments left, let us move from the practical how to the theoretical why. It?s not only necessary to know how to go a out loving your enemies, ut also to go down into the "uestion of why we should love our enemies. I think the first reason that we should love our enemies, and I think this was at the very center of 7esus? thinking, is thisM that hate for hate only intensifies the e,istence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you ack and you hit me ack and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. Rtapping on pulpitS It 1ust never ends. 4omewhere some ody must have a little sense, and that?s the strong person. +he strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. !nd that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn?t cut it off. It only intensifies the e,istence of hate and evil in the universe. 4ome ody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off and in1ect within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love. I think I mentioned efore that sometime ago my rother and I were driving one evening to ;hattanooga, +ennessee, from !tlanta. 5e was driving the car. !nd for some reason the drivers were very discourteous that night. +hey didn?t dim their lights0 hardly any driver that passed y dimmed his lights. !nd I remem er very vividly, my rother !. 2. looked over and in a tone of anger saidM PI know what I?m going to do. +he ne,t car that comes along here and refuses to dim the lights, I?m going to fail to dim mine and pour them on in all of their power.P !nd I looked at him right "uick and saidM P6h no, don?t do that. +here?d e too much light on this highway, and it will end up in mutual destruction for all. 4ome ody got to have some sense 51

on this highway.P 4ome ody must have sense enough to dim the lights, and that is the trou le, isn?t it? +hat as all of the civili3ations of the world move up the highway of history, so many civili3ations, having looked at other civili3ations that refused to dim the lights, and they decided to refuse to dim theirs. !nd +oyn ee tells that out of the twenty9two civili3ations that have risen up, all ut a out seven have found themselves in the 1unkheap of destruction. It is ecause civili3ations fail to have sense enough to dim the lights. !nd if some ody doesn?t have sense enough to turn on the dim and eautiful and powerful lights of love in this world, the whole of our civili3ation will e plunged into the a yss of destruction. !nd we will all end up destroyed ecause no ody had any sense on the highway of history. 4omewhere some ody must have some sense. &en must see that force egets force, hate egets hate, toughness egets toughness. !nd it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and every ody. 4ome ody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. !nd you do that y love. +here?s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is ecause hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and in1urious to the individual who hates. Hou 1ust egin hating some ody, and you will egin to do irrational things. Hou can?t see straight when you hate. Hou can?t walk straight when you hate. Hou can?t stand upright. Hour vision is distorted. +here is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. 5e comes to the point that he ecomes a pathological case. =or the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can e eautiful, and you will call them ugly. =or the person who hates, the eautiful ecomes ugly and the ugly ecomes eautiful. =or the person who hates, the good ecomes ad and the ad ecomes good. =or the person who hates, the true ecomes false and the false ecomes true. +hat?s what hate does. Hou can?t see right. +he sym ol of o 1ectivity is lost. 5ate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater. !nd this is why 7esus says hate Rrecording interruptedS . . . that you want to e integrated with yourself, and the way to e integrated with yourself is e sure that you meet every situation of life with an a ounding love. #ever hate, ecause it ends up in tragic, neurotic responses. %sychologists and psychiatrists are telling us today that the more we hate, the more we develop guilt feelings and we egin to su consciously repress or consciously suppress certain emotions, and they all stack up in our su conscious selves and make for tragic, neurotic responses. !nd may this not e the neuroses of many individuals as they confront life that that is an element of hate there. !nd modern psychology is calling on us now to love. But long efore modern psychology came into eing, the world?s greatest psychologist who walked around the hills of Galilee told us to love. 5e looked at men and saidM P-ove your enemies0 don?t hate any ody.P It?s not enough for us to hate your friends ecause?to to love your friends? ecause when you start hating any ody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the universe0 so love every ody. 5ate at any point is a cancer that gnaws away at the very vital center of your life and your e,istence. It is like eroding acid that eats away the est and the o 1ective center of your life. 4o 7esus says love, ecause hate destroys the hater as well as the hated. #ow there is a final reason I think that 7esus says, P-ove your enemies.P It is thisM that love has within it a redemptive power. !nd there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. +hat?s why 7esus says, P-ove your enemies.P Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. Hou 1ust keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they? re mistreating you. 5ere?s the person who is a neigh or, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. 7ust keep eing friendly to that person. Leep loving them. 2on?t do anything to em arrass them. 7ust keep loving them, and they can?t stand it too long. 6h, they react in many ways in the eginning. +hey react with itterness ecause they?re mad ecause you love them like that. +hey react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they?ll hate you a little more at that transition period, ut 1ust keep loving them. !nd y the power of your love they will reak down under the load. +hat?s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why 7esus says love. +here?s something a out love that uilds up and is creative. +here is something a out hate that tears down and is destructive. 4o love your enemies. I think of one of the est e,amples of this. We all remem er the great president of this United 4tates, ! raham -incoln?these United 4tates rather. Hou remem er when ! raham -incoln was running for president of the United 4tates, there was a man who ran all around the country talking a out -incoln. 5e said a lot of ad things a out -incoln, a lot of unkind things. !nd sometimes he would get to the point that he would even talk a out his looks, saying, PHou don?t want a tall, lanky, ignorant 52

man like this as the president of the United 4tates.P 5e went on and on and on and went around with that type of attitude and wrote a out it. =inally, one day ! raham -incoln was elected president of the United 4tates. !nd if you read the great iography of -incoln, if you read the great works a out him, you will discover that as every president comes to the point, he came to the point of having to choose a ;a inet. !nd then came the time for him to choose a 4ecretary of War. 5e looked across the nation, and decided to choose a man y the name of &r. 4tanton. !nd when ! raham -incoln stood around his advisors and mentioned this fact, they said to himM P&r. -incoln, are you a fool? 2o you know what &r. 4tanton has een saying a out you? 2o you know what he has done, tried to do to you? 2o you know that he has tried to defeat you on every hand? 2o you know that, &r. -incoln? 2id you read all of those derogatory statements that he made a out you?P ! raham -incoln stood efore the advisors around him and saidM P6h yes, I know a out it0 I read a out it0 I?ve heard him myself. But after looking over the country, I find that he is the est man for the 1o .P &r. 4tanton did ecome 4ecretary of War, and a few months later, ! raham -incoln was assassinated. !nd if you go to Washington, you will discover that one of the greatest words or statements ever made y, a out ! raham -incoln was made a out this man 4tanton. !nd as ! raham -incoln came to the end of his life, 4tanton stood up and saidM P#ow he elongs to the ages.P !nd he made a eautiful statement concerning the character and the stature of this man. If ! raham -incoln had hated 4tanton, if ! raham -incoln had answered everything 4tanton said, ! raham -incoln would have not transformed and redeemed 4tanton. 4tanton would have gone to his grave hating -incoln, and -incoln would have gone to his grave hating 4tanton. But through the power of love ! raham -incoln was a le to redeem 4tanton. +hat?s it. +here is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet. 7esus discovered it centuries ago. &ahatma Gandhi of India discovered it a few years ago, ut most men and most women never discover it. =or they elieve in hitting for hitting0 they elieve in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth0 they elieve in hating for hating0 ut 7esus comes to us and says, P+his isn?t the way.P !nd oh this morning, as I think of the fact that our world is in transition now. 6ur whole world is facing a revolution. 6ur nation is facing a revolution, our nation. 6ne of the things that concerns me most is that in the midst of the revolution of the world and the midst of the revolution of this nation, that we will discover the meaning of 7esus? words. 5istory unfortunately leaves some people oppressed and some people oppressors. !nd there are three ways that individuals who are oppressed can deal with their oppression. 6ne of them is to rise up against their oppressors with physical violence and corroding hatred. But oh this isn?t the way. =or the danger and the weakness of this method is its futility. Iiolence creates many more social pro lems than it solves. !nd I?ve said, in so many instances, that as the #egro, in particular, and colored peoples all over the world struggle for freedom, if they succum to the temptation of using violence in their struggle, un orn generations will e the recipients of a long and desolate night of itterness, and our chief legacy to the future will e an endless reign of meaningless chaos. Iiolence isn?t the way. !nother way is to ac"uiesce and to give in, to resign yourself to the oppression. 4ome people do that. +hey discover the difficulties of the wilderness moving into the promised land, and they would rather go ack to the despots of Egypt ecause it?s difficult to get in the promised land. !nd so they resign themselves to the fate of oppression0 they somehow ac"uiesce to this thing. But that too isn?t the way ecause non9cooperation with evil is as much a moral o ligation as is cooperation with good. But there is another way. !nd that is to organi3e mass non9violent resistance ased on the principle of love. It seems to me that this is the only way as our eyes look to the future. !s we look out across the years and across the generations, let us develop and move right here. We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. !nd when we discover that we will e a le to make of this old world a new world. We will e a le to make men etter. -ove is the only way. 7esus discovered that. #ot only did 7esus discover it, even great military leaders discover that. 6ne day as #apoleon came toward the end of his career and looked ack across the years?the great #apoleon that at a very early age had all ut con"uered the world. 5e was not stopped until he ecame, till he moved out to the attle of -eip3ig and then to Waterloo. But that same #apoleon one day 53

stood ack and looked across the years, and saidM P!le,ander, ;aesar, ;harlemagne, and I have uilt great empires. But upon what did they depend? +hey depended upon force. But long ago 7esus started an empire that depended on love, and even to this day millions will die for him.P Hes, I can see 7esus walking around the hills and the valleys of %alestine. !nd I can see him looking out at the ?oman Empire with all of her fascinating and intricate military machinery. But in the midst of that, I can hear him sayingM PI will not use this method. #either will I hate the ?oman Empire.P R?adio !nnouncerMS JW?&!, &ontgomery, !la ama. 2ue to the fact of the delay this morning, we are going over with the sermon.K Rseveral words inaudi leS . . . and 1ust start marching.!nd I?m proud to stand here in 2e,ter this morning and say that that army is still marching. It grew up from a group of eleven or twelve men to more than seven hundred million today. Because of the power and influence of the personality of this ;hrist, he was a le to split history into a.d. and .c. Because of his power, he was a le to shake the hinges from the gates of the ?oman Empire. !nd all around the world this morning, we can hear the glad echo of heaven ringM 7esus shall reign wherever sun, 2oes his successive 1ourneys run0 5is kingdom spreads from shore to shore, +ill moon shall wane and wa, no more. We can hear another chorus singingM P!ll hail the power of 7esus nameQP We can hear another chorus singingM P5allelu1ah, hallelu1ahQ 5e?s Ling of Lings and -ord of -ords. 5allelu1ah, hallelu1ahQP We can hear another choir singingM In ;hrist there is no East or West. In 5im no #orth or 4outh, But one great =ellowship of -ove +hroughout the whole wide world. +his is the only way. !nd our civili3ation must discover that. Individuals must discover that as they deal with other individuals. +here is a little tree planted on a little hill and on that tree hangs the most influential character that ever came in this world. But never feel that that tree is a meaningless drama that took place on the stages of history. 6h no, it is a telescope through which we look out into the long vista of eternity, and see the love of God reaking forth into time. It is an eternal reminder to a power9drunk generation that love is the only way. It is an eternal reminder to a generation depending on nuclear and atomic energy, a generation depending on physical violence, that love is the only creative, redemptive, transforming power in the universe. 4o this morning, as I look into your eyes, and into the eyes of all of my rothers in !la ama and all over !merica and over the world, I say to you, PI love you. I would rather die than hate you.P !nd I$m foolish enough to elieve that through the power of this love somewhere, men of the most recalcitrant ent will e transformed. !nd then we will e in God?s kingdom. We will e a le to matriculate into the university of eternal life ecause we had the power to love our enemies, to less those persons that cursed us, to even decide to e good to those persons who hated us, and we even prayed for those persons who despitefully used us. 6h God, help us in our lives and in all of our attitudes, to work out this controlling force of love, this controlling power that can solve every pro lem that we confront in all areas. 6h, we talk a out politics0 we talk a out the pro lems facing our atomic civili3ation. Grant that all men will come together and discover that as we solve the crisis and solve these pro lems Pthe international pro lems, the pro lems of atomic energy, the pro lems of nuclear energy, and yes, even the race pro lemP let us 1oin together in a great fellowship of love and ow down at the feet of 7esus. Give us this strong determination. In the name and spirit of this ;hrist, we pray. !men. 54

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