And another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we’re going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today.And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn’t done, and done in a hurry, to bring 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. Now, I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I’m happy that He’s allowed me to be in Memphis.I can remember—I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph 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 business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God’s world. And that’s all this whole thing is about. We aren’t engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God’s children. And that we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.Now, 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. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh’s court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that’s the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.
其次，让我们看看到底有哪些问题。问题是不公平，问题是孟菲斯在相关事务的处理上，拒绝公平和诚恳地对待他的公仆——环卫工人。现在，我们必须将注意力集中到这个问题上。这种问题通常都会伴随有一些暴力在里面，你们都知道前几天发生的事情，而报纸上只轻描淡写地说到砸坏了窗户。我看了这些文章。这些文章基本上都没有注意到这样一个事实，1300个环卫工人在罢工，因为孟菲斯对他们很不公平，而且洛布市长急需一位大夫帮他看看。它们没有注意到这样的一个事实。所以，我们要再次游行，而且我们也必须游行，以促使这件事得到应有的公平解决——我们要让大家看到有1300个上帝的孩子正在受难，他们经常挨饿，艰难地熬过一个又一个黑暗悲伤的夜晚，不知道这样的日子什么时候是个头。这就是我们面临的问题。我们必须告知全体国民：我们坚信，这个问题很快会得到应有的解决的。因为一旦人们意识到自己所做的事是正确的，而且愿意为之牺牲的时候，不达目的是不会罢休的。任何恶意的举动都不能使我们停步。在非暴力行进中，我们很成功地解除了警察的武力与警惕，他们不知道如何应对，我经常看到他们茫然的神情。我还记得上次在阿拉巴马州的伯明翰，那个时候在那场激烈伟大的斗争中，每天我们都要从第16街的浸礼会教堂出发，我们成百上千地走上大街，而“公牛”康诺（注：伯明翰的公共安全专员）命令警察放狗，他们照做了，但是我们走到狗的面前唱起“难道没有人可以让我们后退了吗？”“公牛”继续道：“把消防水龙打开。”正如前几天晚上我跟你们说的，“公牛”不懂历史，但是懂一点道理，但是不会懂得我们所了解的精神战胜（内在的一种力量）的。这种力量之火水是无法浇熄的。于是我们走到水龙前，我们从来就了解水，如果我们是浸礼会教友或者别的教派，我们曾受过水的浸润；如果我们是卫理公会派教徒，或是其他什么教派的，我们曾被水淋洒过。我们了解水，水并不能阻止我们。所以我们继续前行，在狗前面，我们看着狗前进；在水龙前面，我们看着水龙前进。同时我们还唱起“在我头顶我看见了自由之光在那天穹中”，之后我们会被带到囚车里。有时候，我们会像罐头里的沙丁鱼一样被堆在里面，然而，他们还是会把我们塞进去。而老“公牛”会说：“把他们带走。”他们也这样做了。而我们即便是进到囚车里，也仍一遍又一遍地高唱：“我们终将胜利。”时不时地我们会被抓到监狱里，我们会看到监狱看守被我们的祈祷、被我们的话语言谈、被我们的歌声所打动，而望向监狱的窗外。这就是力量，这种力量是“公牛”所无法可想而予以打击的。于是我们最终让“公牛”变成了“阉公牛”。我们也赢得了我们在伯明翰的胜利。
Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we’ve got to keep attention on that. That’s always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didn’t get around to that.Now we’re going to march again, and we’ve got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be—and force everybody 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. That’s the issue. And we’ve got to say to the nation: We know it’s coming out. For 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 forces; they don’t know what to do, I’ve seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there, we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around.” Bull Connor next would say, “Turn the fire hoses on.” And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn’t know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn’t relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denomination, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water.That couldn’t stop us. And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we’d go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and we’d just go on singing, “Over my head I see freedom in the air.” And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, “Take them off,” and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, “We Shall Overcome.” And every now and then we’d get in the jail, and we’d see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldn’t adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham.
