martin luther king jr nobel acceptance speech central idea

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in 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 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 idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. 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 despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. 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. This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity. The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears witness to this truth. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation.

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. 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. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace …Īfter 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. 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. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder. 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 only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. 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 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 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. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen: Martin Luther King’s Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, 10 December 1964 held his acceptance speech in the auditorium of the University of Oslo on 10 December 1964.

Martin luther king jr nobel acceptance speech central idea