Let us rise up tonight
with a greater readiness
let us stand
with a greater determination
let us move on
in these powerful days, these days of challenge
to make America what it ought to be
we've got some difficult days ahead
but it really doesn't matter with me now
because i've been to the mountaintop
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
i'm not worried about anything
i'm not fearing any man
mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
1960 : students all over the South
started sitting in at lunch counters
and i knew that as they were sitting in
they were really standing up for the best in the American Dream
and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy
which were dug deep by the founding fathers
in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
we've got some difficult days ahead
but it really doesn't matter with me now
because i've been to the mountaintop
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
i'm not worried about anything
i'm not fearing any man
mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
1962 : when Negroes in Albany, Georgia,
decided to straighten their backs up and whenever men and women
straighten their backs up they are going somewhere
because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent
1963 : black people in Birmingham, Alabama
aroused the conscience of this nation
and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill
later that year in August
I would try to tell America
about a dream that i had
we've got some difficult days ahead
but it really doesn't matter with me now
because i've been to the mountaintop
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
i'm not worried about anything
i'm not fearing any man
mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
we've got some difficult days ahead
but it really doesn't matter with me now
because i've been to the mountaintop
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
i'm not worried about anything
i'm not fearing any man
mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
with a greater readiness
let us stand
with a greater determination
let us move on
in these powerful days, these days of challenge
to make America what it ought to be
we've got some difficult days ahead
but it really doesn't matter with me now
because i've been to the mountaintop
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
i'm not worried about anything
i'm not fearing any man
mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
1960 : students all over the South
started sitting in at lunch counters
and i knew that as they were sitting in
they were really standing up for the best in the American Dream
and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy
which were dug deep by the founding fathers
in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
we've got some difficult days ahead
but it really doesn't matter with me now
because i've been to the mountaintop
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
i'm not worried about anything
i'm not fearing any man
mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
1962 : when Negroes in Albany, Georgia,
decided to straighten their backs up and whenever men and women
straighten their backs up they are going somewhere
because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent
1963 : black people in Birmingham, Alabama
aroused the conscience of this nation
and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill
later that year in August
I would try to tell America
about a dream that i had
we've got some difficult days ahead
but it really doesn't matter with me now
because i've been to the mountaintop
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
i'm not worried about anything
i'm not fearing any man
mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
we've got some difficult days ahead
but it really doesn't matter with me now
because i've been to the mountaintop
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
i'm not worried about anything
i'm not fearing any man
mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord