Speaker 1: Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Once Said, the life's most
Speaker 1: persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others?
Speaker 1: Coming up? We got some excerpts from doctor King's I've
Speaker 1: been to the Mountaintop speech. Let us rise up tonight
Speaker 1: with a greater readiness in these powerful days, These days
Speaker 1: a challenge to make America what it ought to be.
Speaker 1: We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.
Speaker 1: And I want to thank God once more for allowing
Speaker 1: me to be here with you. You know, several years
Speaker 1: ago I was in New York City autographing the first
Speaker 1: book that I had written. While sitting the autographing books,
Speaker 1: the minute black woman came up. The only question I
Speaker 1: heard from her was you Martin Luther King. And I
Speaker 1: was looking down writing and I said yes. The next minute,
Speaker 1: I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it,
Speaker 1: I had been stabbed by this deminted woman. I was
Speaker 1: rushed to hullm Hospital. It was a dog Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 1: That blade had gone through and the X rays revealed
Speaker 1: that the tip of the blade was on the edge
Speaker 1: of my order the main ottery and one's puncture. You
Speaker 1: drowned in your own blood. That's the end of you.
Speaker 1: It came out in the New York Times the next
Speaker 1: morning that if I had merely sneezed, I would have
Speaker 1: died well. About four days later, they allowed me, after
Speaker 1: the operation, after my chest had been opening, the blade
Speaker 1: had been taken out, to move around in the wheelchair
Speaker 1: the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the
Speaker 1: mail that came in, and from all over the states
Speaker 1: and the world. Kind letters came in. I read a few,
Speaker 1: but one of them I will never forget. I had
Speaker 1: received one from the President and the Vice President. I've
Speaker 1: forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and
Speaker 1: a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've
Speaker 1: forgotten what that letter say it. Yes, but there was
Speaker 1: another letter. It came from a little girl, a young
Speaker 1: girl who was a student at the White Plains High School.
Speaker 1: And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1: Say it simply, dear Doctor King, I am a ninth
Speaker 1: grade student at the White Plains High School. She said.
Speaker 1: While it should not matter, I would like to mention
Speaker 1: that I'm a white girl. I read in the paper
Speaker 1: of your misfortune and of your suffering, and I read
Speaker 1: that if you had sneezed, you would have died. I'm
Speaker 1: simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that
Speaker 1: you didn't sneeze, and I want to say tonight. I
Speaker 1: want to say tonight that I too, am happy that
Speaker 1: I didn't sneeze, because that I had sneezed, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been around here in nineteen sixty when students all
Speaker 1: over the South started sitting in at lunch counties, and
Speaker 1: I knew that as a was sitting in, they were
Speaker 1: really standing up for the best in the American dream
Speaker 1: and taking the whole nation back to those great wells
Speaker 1: of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers
Speaker 1: in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I
Speaker 1: had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty one when we decided to take a ride for
Speaker 1: freedom and ended segregation in interstate travel. If I had sneezed,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been around here in nineteen sixty two,
Speaker 1: when Negroes and all been at Georgia decided to straighten
Speaker 1: that box up. And whenever the women straighten that box up,
Speaker 1: they are going somewhere. Because a man can't Roger back
Speaker 1: unless it is bent. If I had sneeved. If I
Speaker 1: had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here. In nineteen sixty three,
Speaker 1: the black people of Birmingham, Alabama aroused the conscience of
Speaker 1: this nation and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.
Speaker 1: If I had sneeze, I wouldn't have had a chance
Speaker 1: later that year, in August to try to tell America
Speaker 1: about a dream that I had had. If I had sneeze,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama to see
Speaker 1: the great movement there. If I had sneeze, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been in Memphis to see a community rally around
Speaker 1: those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy
Speaker 1: that I didn't snee and they were telling them now
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter now, it really doesn't matter what happens now.
Speaker 1: I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started
Speaker 1: on the plane that was six of us, the pilot
Speaker 1: said over the public address system, we're sorref for the delay,
Speaker 1: but we have Dr Martin Luther King on the plane,
Speaker 1: and to be sure that all of the bags were
Speaker 1: checked and to be sure that nothing would be wrong
Speaker 1: on the plane. We had to check out everything carefully,
Speaker 1: and we've had the plane protected and guard it all night.
Speaker 1: Then I got into Memphis and some began to say
Speaker 1: the threats I talk about the threats that were out
Speaker 1: of what would happen to me from some of our
Speaker 1: sick white brothers. Well, I don't know what will happen now.
Speaker 1: We've got some difficult days ahead, but it really doesn't
Speaker 1: matter with me now because I've been to the mountain talk.
Speaker 1: I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live
Speaker 1: a long life. Longevity has its place, but I'm not
Speaker 1: concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will,
Speaker 1: and He's allowed me to go up to the mountain,
Speaker 1: and I've looked over and I've seen the promised Lamb.
Speaker 1: I may not get there with you, but I want
Speaker 1: you to know the night that we as a people
Speaker 1: will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.
Speaker 1: Mine eyes have seen the glory on the coming of
Speaker 1: the Lord. You're listening Hard Morning Show