Dr Martin Luther King: "...Sign your own Emancipation Proclamation..."

MLK Speech is reported to have been a segment from one of Dr. King's speeches in Atlanta Georgia on August 11, 1967.

"Nobody else can do this for us. No document - can do this for us. No Lincolnian emancipation proclamation can do this for us. No Tennessonian or Johnsonian civil rights bill can do this for us.

If the Negro is to be free he must move down into the inner resources of his own soul and sign with a pen and ink of self assertive manhood his own emancipation proclamation.

Don't let anybody take your manhood. Be proud of our heritage as somebody said earlier tonight, we don't have anything to be ashamed of.

Somebody told a lie one day. They couched it in language - they made everything Black ugly and evil.

Look in your dictionary, and see the synonyms of the word Black - it's always something degrading and low and sinister. Look at the word White - always something pure, high and clean.

But, I want to get the language right tonight. I want to get the language so right that everybody here will cry out YES, I'm Black and proud of it! I'm Black and Beautiful !"

Dr. King continued the speech by saying that Racial pride wasn't enough, that people of African descent in addition to have racial pride should be dedicated to improving the world.