In honor of the Reverend Martin
Luther King, Jr. and his legacy of peace, I bring to you His Acceptance Speech
of the Nobel Peace Prize:
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the
United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night
of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement
which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to
establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only
yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood,
were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that
only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the
right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40
houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned
because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I
am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains
them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.
Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement
which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which
has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel
Prize.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on
behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the
answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time - the need for
man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and
oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the
United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that
nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes
for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will
have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this
pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be
achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects
revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo
bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are
travelling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened for all
Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights
Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a super
highway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances
to overcome their common problems.
I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an
audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the
final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the
"isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of
reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I
refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of
life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to
accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of
racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never
become 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 believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the
final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than
evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining
bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded
justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be
lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I
have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day
for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality
and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn
down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will
bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed,
and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "And
the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his
own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." I still believe that WeShall overcome!
This 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 become dreary with
low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we
will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization
struggling to be born.
Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed
dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace
and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am
aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.
Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people
who make a successful journey possible - the known pilots and the unknown
ground crew.
So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at
the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again,
Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with
and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man's
inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices
the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these
people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have
rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvellous
age in which we live - men and women will know and children will be taught that
we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization - because
these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake.
I think Alfred Nobel 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 - all those to whom beauty is truth and
truth beauty - and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is
more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.
From Les Prix
Nobel en 1964,
Editor Göran Liljestrand, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1965
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1964
