In our time we have come to live with the moments of great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues -- issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression. But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values, and the purposes, and the meaning of our beloved nation.

The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue.

And should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. For with a country as with a person, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans -- not as Democrats or Republicans. We are met here as Americans to solve that problem.

This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "All men are created equal," "government by consent of the governed," "give me liberty or give me death." Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.

【美国经典英文演讲100篇:We Shall Overcome】相关文章：

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:Farewell Address

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:On Vietnam and Not Seeking Re-Election

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:Statement on the Articles of Impeachment

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:＂The Marshall Plan＂

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:Sproul Hall Sit-in Speech

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:＂Religious Belief and Public Morality＂

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:40th Anniversary of D-Day Address

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:The Great Silent Majority

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:First Fireside Chat

★ 美国经典英文演讲100篇:1984 DNC Address