Martin Luther King Jr: ‘America, Be True to What You Said on Paper’

ON THIS DAY April 4th, 1968–Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at 6:01 p.m. CST at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King delivered this final speech popularly known as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee.

Rebellious cause for liberation is inherent to REPUBLICANISM and is our right to abhor and fight against despotism and injustice. I recommend reading G. Mazzini’s Oath taken by members of Young Italy, 1831.

“All we say to America is “Be true to what you said on paper.” If I lived in China, or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I can understand the denial of certain basic first amendment privileges, because they haven’t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the Freedom of Assembly. Somewhere I read of the Freedom of Speech. Somewhere I read of the Freedom of Press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the Right to Protest for Rights!”

Right-wing propaganda in the United States has managed to influence impressionable youth in the colleges and portray itself as the bulwark against “the radical left” and revolutionary grassroot action. The habit has been to represent any challenge as a subversion of America, or as Communist or Socialist (see Testimony of Communist and Civil Rights Activist Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities). We will pound their recurrent propaganda into the ground as itself the ugliest subversion of our morals, principles and potential. If not heard, speak. There are many that hate to find a Black person knowledgeable and full of the heart of a revolutionary. Speak up, and you will find the people beside you, lifted. The times have never changed. You must fight to bring about a new phase of the Republic in the United States. This will never depend upon us waiting for another M.L. King. M.L. King rose to the situation before us all and paid it with his spirit and body, just as we still must do.

‘America, Be True to What You Said on Paper.’