 I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live up the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. The man who said, I have a dream to 200,000 Americans in 1963 was assassinated in 1968. Since Dr. Martin Luther King's death on April 4th, the United States has been in shock and mourning. Only now are Americans beginning to recover from the impact of his tragic death. The following are some of the sorrows. Some of the tributes paid to his memory by his countrymen during the last number of days. At 7.10 this evening, Martin Luther King was shot in Tennessee. This was to be a gala occasion for a little Negro colleague from Mississippi appearing in Carnegie Hall with the Great Duke Ellington. Martin Luther King 20 minutes ago died. I would like to take this opportunity to ask Reverend John Genzel, who is the jazz minister, to lead all of us in prayer for Martin Luther King and the future of all civil rights movement. Would you please rise? The king is dead. Long live the king of love throughout eternity. I think it can be said that he now stands with our other American martyrs in the cause of freedom and justice. His death is a terrible tragedy and sorrow, first of all to his family, to our nation, and to our conscience. I am a fellow citizen and especially my black brothers and sisters in our city. This is Walter Fauntroy, vice chairman of your city council and director of the Washington Bureau of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. No one in the city tonight who is more stunned, whose heart is more crushed or broken by the tragic events of the night that have robbed our nation and our world of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It will be very difficult for us tonight and in the days that reach to come all of us to deal with our deep sense of grief. The sons of farmers of slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream. Martin Luther King, if he had one choice, I am sure he had one choice in his death. It would be that we made a greater effort in this country by adhering to the principles that he so ably advocated of non-violence. That we make now a greater effort, the theory of nonviolent effort, to eliminate the obvious inequalities that still exist between white and negro citizens. And that we provide in an affluent and wealthy and magnificent white America an equal opportunity for the negro citizens. There's not going to be any replacement for Martin Luther King Jr. anytime soon. He was the leader and now the martyr of the whole civil rights crusade has been the most important domestic issue of this century in America. It may be that out of the ashes of this awful tragedy that a new dawn can break depends on each of us. It may be that the prophecy that Dr. King once made may come true when he said, we now stand in the midnight of our existence but I see a new dawn coming. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, if we have resolved we can convert this moment of the nation's greatest shame into our finest hour. The only thing more tragic than the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be that the only response would be black anger and white sympathy. You can kill a man but you cannot kill an idea. And the idea and the ideal for which Dr. Martin Luther King stood, for which he lived and for which he died, will continue to live in this country, will continue to live in this city. And despite the sorrow of our underweight all of us today, be also in heaven. There will no tomorrow be a surge of the confidence that he was right and that we will overcome. I have a dream where one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream. The candidates for the presidency of the United States expressed their grief that night in statements to the American people. Senator Eugene McCarthy called Dr. King's death a tragedy for all Americans. He said that not only had the Negro people lost the noble and great leader but all Americans had lost the man of peace. Former Vice President Richard Nixon paid tribute to Dr. King as a man determined that the American Negro should win his rightful place alongside all others in his nation. And at the same time, a man whose life was devoted to the principle of peaceful nonviolent change. George Wallace, former governor of Alabama, called the assassination a senseless, regrettable and tragic act. And Senator Robert Kennedy, recalling the death of his own brother, paid homage to Martin Luther King as a man who died in an effort to dedicate his life to love and to justice for his fellow human being. But the nation's sorrow was not only echoed in the spoken words of leaders. Most of all, the sorrow was in the millions of faces, faces of all colors and of all religions, who gathered together to mourn his death. The faces of those who would continue to believe in his dreams. The confidence he exuded, whereas if he knew something the rest of us didn't know. It was the composure that marks a man who knows who he is, what he believes and how much he's willing to give for those beliefs. Martin Luther King, deep faith in God, in the people of this land, black and white, who were God's children, and the victory that would come. All of these were the wellsprings of that serenity and that calmness and tranquility were a blessing to our land. I have a dream that will be made plain and the crooked faces will be made straight and the boys will see it together. But I have a dream today. The courage of mine can fill the void of the eloquent voice that has been still, but this I do believe deeply. The dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has not died with him. Men who are white, men who are black must and will now join together as never in the past to let all the forces of divisiveness know that America shall not be ruled by the bullet, but only by the ballot of free and of just men. Like anybody I would like to live a long life, longevity has its place. And in a minute, the night before his death. I just want to do God's will and he's allowed me to go up to the mountains and I've looked over and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, most of the nation grieved, but there were those who did not grieve. There were those who used death as an excuse for the winning of luxury and the gain of destruction. Their motive was neither grief nor hunger. Their numbers were small, but damage was not. Negro leaders publicly deplored this looting and violence. Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. What discourages me and dismayes me and disheartens me is that in the reports so far coming in, we have reports of looting, not anger, not violent outbreaks, not an expression of their sorrow and resentment at the killing of Dr. King, but utilizing this as an opportunity to steal things. I think Martin's memory is desecrated by this kind of action. Most were satisfied with small items, but a few were overly ambitious. Curious perhaps, like those who tried to fit a huge stereo set into a small car. I would want every young black person to take the rap for a few of those ones. Entertainer, Sammy Davis Jr. But I would simply say to all young people, particularly my black brothers and sisters, that the man fit for something very special in a world of violence, he was struck down by violence, are adding to it, no matter what our frustration, no matter what our anger, what our justifications might be. And it becomes thievery when the carnival atmosphere that Mr. Wilkins talks about does prevail. And I don't see sad faces mourning the tragic loss of this great American. See people laughing and giggling. I somehow want to disown those people. I don't want to call those people who were laughing less than $48 after our leader died. And stealing, those are not really brothers. Those cannot be the people who are striving for the dignity that we should have at this point. The Reverend Wyatt Walker, a close friend and associate of Dr. King, since the beginning of the civil rights movement. As difficult as it was for those of us who are civil rights figures, I'm afraid to say leaders or spokesmen, that someone must have the maturity in the black community to say that these riots are riots and they cannot by any stretch of the imagination be made into people's rebellion. And I think in this moment, this is the moment for, and Roy has always had the courage to call it a spade a spade, if I may use a racist euphemism, to say that, that you can't make a people's rebellion out of riots. There's no way within the realm of morality, looting can be justified. It is illegitimate, it is wanted, it is dishonest. And even though these are black teenagers predominantly, that's all it is, it's hoodlumism and we amongst the other people in our larger community must say also that it is wrong and it is deplorable and the nation cannot digest it. For a while, it seemed as though nothing could pull the outbreak. But the pleas for non-violence and restraint continued. You know what you're talking about, be qualified, be ready. Then you'll have a problem, be ready, know what you're doing. Senior James Brown. I used to shine shoes on the steps of radio station WRDW. I think we started three cents and went to five and six, never to get to a dime. But today, I own that radio station. You know what that is? That's black power. Right here, it's not in the violence. It's in knowing what you're talking about, being ready. Now I say to you because I'm your brother, I know where it's at. I've been there. I'm not using it from imagination, I'm talking from experience. Get out of the street, go home, take your family's home. Look at television, listen to the radio, listen to some James Brown writing. But get out of the street. Let's go back to our normal functions. Another thing I'd like to say. Don't burn, give the kids a chance to learn. Don't terrorize, but organize. The greatest tribute that we can pay to this man who we all love. Walter Pondroy of the Southern Christian Leadership Constance. We should handle our grief in these early hours of crisis, in the spirit of nonviolence, that he would have had us to handle them. And so I appeal to you tonight to handle your grief and to respond to this tragic event in silence and in nonviolence. I appeal to you to remain in your homes tonight and to encourage your friends and relatives too. To pray for a spreading of the spirit of this great man that we have loved so much and whom we all love. The greatest tribute I repeat is the name of God and the name of Martin Luther King Jr. that we can make is to handle our grief in the spirit of nonviolence. Those who respond violently in their grief do Dr. King and his memory of dishonor. Please respond to this appeal. The destruction and the theft was done and those that did grieve picked up the pieces. Throughout the cities, churches were set up as emergency centers to distribute food, clothing and shelter to those in need. With the help of government agencies and private organizations, they started to rebuild. Appeals were issued to citizens outside the troubled areas for money and assistance. The people responded generously. President Johnson led the nation in calling for unity and understanding. I asked every citizen to reject the blind violence that has struck Dr. King, who lives by nonviolence. I pray that his family can find comfort in the memory of all he tried to do for the land he loved so well. I have just conveyed the sympathy of Ms. Johnson myself to his widow, Mrs. King. I know that every American of good will joins me in mourning the death of this outstanding leader and in praying for peace and understanding throughout this land. We can achieve nothing by lawlessness and divisiveness. Among the American people, it's only by joining together and only by working together can we continue to move toward equality and fulfillment for all of our people. In the shadow of a flag that for the first time was lured to half mass for a private citizen, some had proven by smoke they had already forgotten him. But for every thief, there were millions who mourned and beyond the smoke, they were king.