MLK's Nobel Peace Prize speech

When it comes to Martin Luther King, Jr. as an orator, most recall his famous 1963 I Have a Dream speech delivered at the March on Washington. One speech which deserves considerable attention, however, is his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. Though his deliver was muted, his message and words are powerful. The Daily Beats shares more about the now forgotten speech and its "electrifying" message 50 years later in "Martin Luther King’s Nobel Speech Is an Often Ignored Masterpiece."

 “I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice,” he began. “I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement, which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking 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 sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.”

You can also watch King's delivery of the speech on the Nobel Prize website HERE.

50 years later, what does this speech mean to our country? We encourage you to share your thoughts below. What does it say about how far we have come and how far we have to go?