歌手:格林乐队
专辑:《I Have A Dream》

作词 : Martin Luther King, Jr.
作曲 : 格林
Five score years ago a great American
In whose symbolic shadow we stand
Today signed the Emancipation Proclamation
This momentous decree came as a great
Beacon light of hope to millions of
Negro slaves who had been seared
In the flames of withering injustice
It came as a
Joyous daybreak to end the long night
Of their captivity
But one hundred years later the
Negro still is not free
One hundred years later
The life of the Negro is still sadly
Crippled by the manacles of segregation
And the chains of discrimination
One hundred years later
The Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty
In the midst of a vast
Ocean of material prosperity
One hundred years later
The Negro is still languished in the
Corners of American society
And finds himself an exile in his own land
And so we've come
Here today to dramatize a shameful condition
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital
To cash a check When the architects of our
Tepublic wrote the magnificent words
Of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence
They were signing a promissory note
To which every American was to fall heir
This note was a promise that all men
Yes black men as well as white men
Would be guaranteed the
Unalienable Rights of Life Liberty
And the pursuit of Happiness
It is obvious today that
America has defaulted on this promissory note
Insofar as her citizens of color are concerned
Instead of honoring this sacred obligation
America has given the Negro people a bad check
A check which has come back marked insufficient funds

But we refuse to believe that