I say to you today, my friends, that inspite of the difficultiesand frustration of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream rooted in the American Dream.
I have a dream that one day the nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed : "We hold these truths to be self-evidence; that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the State of Alabama, whose Governor’s lips are presently dripping wih the words of interposition and nullification , will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to joins hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. .

This is our hope. Thisis the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we shall be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brother hood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning"My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died. land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the Heightening Alleghenies of Pennylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California.

But not only that : let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual. "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

August 28, 1963, Washington DC.
Excerpts from the speech gives at the march in Washington.
Source : Coretta Scott King. The Words of Martin Luther King (Collins Fount Paperbacks,1983).

There is a story of a great artist who was employed to pain a picture from which a stained glass window would be made in a new church. The subject was "Around the throne of God in Heaven thousands of children stand." "They employed a great artist to paint the picture from which the window would be made. He began the work and fell in love with the task. Finally he finished it. He went to bed and fell asleep but in the night he seemed to hear a noise in his studio; he went into the studio to investigae; and there he saw a stranger with a brush and a palette in his hands working at his picture. "Stop!" he cried. "You will ruin my picture ," "I think," said the stranger, "that you have ruined it already," "How is that" said the artist. "Well,"said the stranger, " you have many colours on your palette but you have used only one for the faces of the children. Who told you that in Heaven there were only children whose faces were white?" "No one" said the artist. " I just though of it that way," "Look!" said the stranger, " I will make some of their faces yellow and some brown, and some balck, and some red. They are all there , for they have all answered my call." "You call?" said the artist. " Who are you?" The stranger smiled. "Once long ago I said, "Let the children come to me and don’t stop them , for of such is the kingdom of Heaven-- and I’ am still saying it." Then the artist realised that it was the Master himself, and as he did so, he vanished from his sight. The picture looked so much more wonderful now with its black and yellow and red and brown childrenas well as white. Inthe morning the artist awoke and rushed through to his studio. His picture was just as he had left it; and he knew that it had all been a dream. Although that very day the committee was coming to examine the picture, he seized his brushes and his paints, and began to paint the children of every colour and of every race throughout all the world. When the Committee arrived they thought the picture very beautiful and one whispered gently, "Why! It’s God’s family at home."

Source : William Barclay. The Daily Sunday Bible, The Gospelof Mark (Bangalore: Theological Publicationsn India,1975).