Ten Points of Extra Credit:
Memorize and present one of the following sections of either FDR’s Inaugural Address or Martin Luther King, Jr.’s
speech.
Scoring:
You will be awarded 10 points if you make no more than 3 errors and a point will be subtracted for every three
errors that follow the initial three (eg: 9 total errors = 8 bonus points).
You will deliver the chosen section in the beginning of class on January 23.
FDR’s speech appears on pages 503 – 509 of your text
I AM certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a
candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the
truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today.
This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm
belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes
needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and
vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am
convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.
In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material
things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds
is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered
leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years
in thousands of families are gone.
More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil
with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts.
OR…..
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The
joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days
will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves
and to our fellow men.
Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the
false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and
personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred
trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on
honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it
cannot live.
Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.
Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously.
It can be accomplishd in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the
emergency of a wr, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate
and reorganize the use of our natural resources.
1
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech appears on pages 495- 499 of your text.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history
of our nation.
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 republic 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 the bank of justice is bankrupt.
OR…….
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will
be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
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 that my four little children will 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 today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the
words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able
to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places
will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh
shall see it together."2