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We at here! are in true speech mode this week! Here are excerpts from some of the greatest ones in history…

Martin Luther King: I have a dream, August 28, 1963

The famed civil rights leader expressed his desire for equality amongst all people in his famous speech.

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character… When we let freedom ring, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Malcolm X: The ballot or the bullet, April 3, 1964

Human rights activist Malcolm X encouraged black Americans to exercise their right to vote, but warned that if the government continued to prevent racial equality, it might be necessary to take up arms.

“It's time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we're supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don't cast a ballot, it's going to end up in a situation where we're going to have to cast a bullet. It's either a ballot or a bullet.”

Nelson Mandela: I am prepared to die, April 20, 1964

After being charged with sabotage and treason, the then anti-apartheid campaigner – who, of course, went on to become the South African president – made a speech during his trial.

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal, which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Thabo Mbeki: I am an African, May 8, 1996

Then South Africa’s deputy president, Thabo Mbeki – who went on to become the country’s president – made a speech expressing his belief in the capacity of African people.

“Friends, on an occasion such as this, we should, perhaps, start from the beginning. So, let me begin. I am an African… It seems to have happened that we looked at ourselves and said the time had come that we make a super-human effort to be other than human, to respond to the call to create for ourselves a glorious future…Today it feels good to be an African.”

Barack Obama: acceptance speech, November 4, 2008

The newly elected US president shared the story of a black woman, who voted in the 2008 US election:

“Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old. She was born just a generation past slavery… a time when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.”

Published: 13 September 2009
Issue: 1389

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