I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when twenty-two million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice¹. I accept this award in behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic² scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign³ of freedom and a rule of justice. 

I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood⁴, were answered with fire hoses, snarling⁵ dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeing to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary⁷ to those who would not accept segregation⁸. 

I am mindful that debilitating⁹ and grinding poverty afflicts¹⁰ my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder. 

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered¹¹ and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize. 

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is profound recognition that non-violence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time, the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. 

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that non-violence is not sterile¹² passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation¹³. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby¹⁴ transform this pending¹⁵ cosmic elegy¹⁶ into a creative psalm¹⁷ of brotherhood. 

If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression¹⁸ and retaliation¹⁹. The foundation of such a method is love. The tortuous²⁰ road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama, to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity. 

This same road has opened for all Americans a new ear of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened²¹ into a superhighway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems. 

I accept this award today with an abiding²² faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities²³ of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable²⁴ of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. 

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere²⁵ flotsam and jetsam in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically²⁶ bound to the starless midnight of racism²⁷ and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. 

I refuse to accept the cynical²⁸ notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional²⁹ love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant³⁰. 

I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining³¹ bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate³² on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme³³ among the children of men. 

I have the audacity³⁴ to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centred men have torn down, men other-centred can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and non-violent redemptive goodwill³⁵ will proclaim the rule of the land. 

"And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig³⁶ tree and none shall be afraid." 

I still believe that we shall overcome. 

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties³⁷ of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary³⁸ with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil³⁹ of a genuine civilization struggling to be born. 

Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication⁴⁰ to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honour to me personally. 

Every time I take a flight I am always mindful of the man people who make a successful journey possible, the known pilots and the unknown ground crew. 

So you honour the dedicated⁴¹ pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honour, once again, Chief (Albert) Luthuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal⁶ expression of man's inhumanity to man. 

You honour the ground crew without whose labour and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headlines and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvellous age in which we live, men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization, because these humble⁴² children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake. 

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners, all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty, and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.