Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Sermon | Genius: MLK/X | National Geographic

♫ Oh, teach me what to say. ♫ Good morning. Good morning. I had another sermon I intended to preach to you today. One that encompassed all that I have learned in my many, many years of education and preaching at my father's hip.

[Congregation] Yes. Yes.

But I feel that that sermon no longer speaks to the emotion I now have. I instead would like to use it as a topic from which to preach a very common subject. One wondered by many a people on many a land across every continent and every country and every state and every city on this, God's planet.

[Congregation] Alright, alright.

A subject that, despite this being my first time at your pulpit, I have no doubt that we share a unique commonality. The subject of who we are.

[Congregation] Alright. Yes.

And who we are is God's glory personified.

[Congregation cheering]

When I look out at you, I see we are mothers and fathers. We are sisters and brothers.

[Congregation] Yes, we are.

Men and women. But if we let others tell it, we are slaves. We are second class. We are agitators banging at the door of segregation, asking to be let into the house of equality.

Well, in this moment, I say we stop asking and we start demanding.

[Congregation cheering]

In this moment, we say equality is not a dirty word whispered in the valley of despair, but screamed from the peaks of prosperity.

[Congregation cheering]

In this moment, we soar among the winds of change. In this moment, we will demand change no matter what we face, because we have righteousness on our side. Because we have love on our side. And because we have God on our side.

[Congregation cheering]