“We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt”

Here’s a passage from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 that doesn’t get quoted as often as other passages:

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. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

In the latter part of the speech, improvised from remarks he had given before, King returned to the U.S. of A.’s Founding documents when he said:

I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream–one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed, “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal.”

Americans opposed to King’s demands for equality called him anti-American. But quotations like these show that he was deeply invested in his country’s Founding ideals, as much as or more than his opponents.

We see Americans making similar demands for equality today, and being called the same name. Like King, today’s activists are challenging American society to live up to its professed values.