Martin Luther King: Capital Cash Check
on Monday, August 28, 2017Martin Luther King Money Quote from “I have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963 saying the government owes a debt to every American that has been denied constitutional promises. Martin Luther King said:
We have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
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In this quote, Martin Luther King Jr. is referring to the promises of equality, justice and equal rights that were enshrined in the founding documents of the United States like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
He describes these promises as a kind of “promissory note” or IOU that every American citizen was rightfully owed based on the nation’s principles. King states that in marching to Washington D.C. for the March on Washington, the civil rights movement was effectively coming to “cash this check” and demand that the nation make good on its debt of fully guaranteeing liberty and fair treatment for all people regardless of race.
His view was that the architects of America had pledged justice for all in its founding texts, and the time had come to redeem that pledge in reality by securing true civil rights protections through legislation and social reform.
#ConstitutionDay September 17
Birthday: January 15, 1929 – Died (assasinated) April 4, 1968