Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

A lie cannot live.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, ''Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!''

The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. That's all.