In thinking of the challenge which this revolution brings to each of us, I am reminded of a familiar story that comes down to us from the pen of Washington Irving. It is the story of Rip Van Winkle. But there is another significant fact in this story that is often over looked. It is the change that took place in that the pictures that [ strikeout illegible ] on of wall of the little inn in the town in the Hudson town on the Hudson from which Rip went up into the mountains mountains for his long sleep.
When he came down it had the picture of another George, George Washington. Rip looking up at the picture of George Washington was completely lost. When he started his quiet sleep America was still under the domination of the British Empire. When he came down she was a free and independent nation. This incident suggest that the most striking thing about the story of Rip Van Winkle was not that he slept twenty years, but that he slept through a great revolution. While he was peacefully snoring up in the mountain a revolution was taking place which completely changed the face of the world.
Rip knew nothing about it. He was asleep. There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution. We do not have to look very far to see signs of the present revolution revolution that is taking place in our world today. There is a revolution in the social and political structure of our world on the question of the equality of man. The great masses of people are determined to end the explotation of their lives, and share in their own future and destiny.
They are moving toward their goal like a tidal wave. They are saying in no uncertain terms that colonialism and racism must go. There are approximately two billion five hundred million 2,,, people in this world, and the vast majority of those.
The practical consequences of this revolution are clearly seen. For insta example; twenty five years ago most of the one billion six hundred million 1,,,00 colored peoples of Asia and Africa were dominated politically, exploited economically, segregated and humiliated by some foreign power.
Just fourteen years ago the British had under her control more than five hundred million people in Asia and Africa. Twenty Thirty years ago there were only two independent countries in the whole of Africa—Liberia and Ethiopia.
But today the picture has greatly changed. More the one billion three hundred million 1,,, of the former colonial subject have their independence, and the British Empire now has less than 80 eighty sixty million people under her control in Asia and Africa. I predict that in ten years the vast majority of the countries of continential Africa will be independent, and that the funeral processional will be forming for the eternal burial of colonialism and imperialism in that section of the world.
This world shaking revolution which is engulfing our world is seen in the United States in the transition from a segregated to an integrated society. The social revolution which is taking place in this country is not an isolated, detached phenomenon. It is a part of the world wide revolution that is taking place.
Living through the long night of slavery and segregation many Negroes lost faith it in themselves. Circumstances made it possible and necessary for him to travel more—to spread of the automobile, the upheavels of two world wars, and the great depression.
His rural plantation background was gradually supplanted by migration to urban and industrial communities. His cultural life gradually rose through the steady decline of crippling illiteracy.
His economic life security gradually rose through the growth of industry and the influnce of organized labor. All of these forces conjoined to cause the Negro to take a new look at himself. And certainly it is always a deep and meaningful experience to be in a worship service. But there is another point in that little story that is almost completely overlooked.
It was the sign in the end, from which Rip went up in the mountain for his long sleep. When he came down twenty years later the sign had a picture of George Washington, the first president of the United States. When Rip Van Winkle looked up at the picture of George Washington—and looking at the picture he was amazed—he was completely lost.
He knew not who he was. And this reveals to us that the most striking thing about the story of Rip Van Winkle is not merely that Rip slept twenty years, but that he slept through a revolution.
While he was peacefully snoring up in the mountain a revolution was taking place that at points would change the course of history—and Rip knew nothing about it. He was asleep. Yes, he slept through a revolution. And one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands.
They end up sleeping through a revolution. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that a great revolution is taking place in the world today. In a sense it is a triple revolution: that is, a technological revolution, with the impact of automation and cybernation; then there is a revolution in weaponry, with the emergence of atomic and nuclear weapons of warfare; then there is a human rights revolution, with the freedom explosion that is taking place all over the world.
Yes, we do live in a period where changes are taking place. Now whenever anything new comes into history it brings with it new challenges and new opportunities. And I would like to deal with the challenges that we face today as a result of this triple revolution that is taking place in the world today.
First, we are challenged to develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution.
The world in which we live is geographically one. The challenge that we face today is to make it one in terms of brotherhood. Modern man through his scientific genius has been able to dwarf distance and place time in chains. And our jet planes have compressed into minutes distances that once took weeks and even months. All of this tells us that our world is a neighborhood. Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood.
But somehow, and in some way, we have got to do this. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. Secondly, we are challenged to eradicate the last vestiges of racial injustice from our nation. It is an unhappy truth that racism is a way of life for the vast majority of white Americans, spoken and unspoken, acknowledged and denied, subtle and sometimes not so subtle—the disease of racism permeates and poisons a whole body politic.
And I can see nothing more urgent than for America to work passionately and unrelentingly—to get rid of the disease of racism. Something positive must be done. Everyone must share in the guilt as individuals and as institutions. The government must certainly share the guilt; individuals must share the guilt; even the church must share the guilt.
The hour has come for everybody, for all institutions of the public sector and the private sector to work to get rid of racism.
And now if we are to do it we must honestly admit certain things and get rid of certain myths that have constantly been disseminated all over our nation. One is the myth of time. It is the notion that only time can solve the problem of racial injustice. Stop pushing things so fast. Only time can solve the problem. And if you will just be nice and patient and continue to pray, in a hundred or two hundred years the problem will work itself out.
There is an answer to that myth. It is that time is neutral. It can be used wither constructively or destructively. And I am sorry to say this morning that I am absolutely convinced that the forces of ill will in our nation, the extreme rightists of our nation—the people on the wrong side—have used time much more effectively than the forces of goodwill. And it may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability.
It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God. And without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. So we must help time and realize that the time is always ripe to do right. The thing that we usually remember about this story is that Rip Van Winkle slept 20 years.
But there is another point in that story that is almost always completely overlooked: it was a sign on the inn in the little town on the Hudson from which Rip went up into the mountain for his long sleep.
When he came down, years later, the sign had a picture of George Washington, the first president of the United States. When Rip looked up at the picture of George Washington, he was completely lost; he knew not who he was. This reveals to us that the most striking fact about the story of Rip Van Winkle is not that he slept 20 years, but that he slept through a revolution.
While he was peacefully snoring up on the mountain, a great revolution was taking place in the world - indeed, a revolution which would, at points, change the course of history. And Rip Van Winkle knew nothing about it; he was asleep. There are all too many people who, in some great period of social change, fail to achieve the new mental outlooks that the new situation demands.
There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that a great revolution is taking place in our world today. It is a social revolution, sweeping away the old order of colonialism.
And in our own nation it is sweeping away the old order of slavery and racial segregation. The wind of change is blowing, and we see in our day and our age a significant development. Victor Hugo said on one occasion that there is nothing more powerful in all the world than an idea whose time has come. In a real sense, the idea whose time has come today is the idea of freedom and human dignity.
Wherever men are assembled today, the cry is always the same, "We want to be free. The great challenge facing every individual graduating today is to remain awake through this social revolution. I'd like to suggest some of the things that we must do in order to remain awake and to achieve the proper mental attitudes and responses that the new situation demands.
First, I'd like to say that we are challenged to achieve a world perspective. Anyone who feels that we can live in isolation today, anyone who feels that we can live without being concerned about other individuals and other nations is sleeping through a revolution.
The world in which we live is geographically one. The great challenge now is to make it one in terms of brotherhood. Now it is true that the geographic togetherness of our world has been brought into being, to a large extent, through modern man's scientific ingenuity. Modern man, through his scientific genius, has been able to dwarf distance and place time in chains.
Yes, we've been able to carve highways through the stratosphere, and our jet planes have compressed into minutes distances that once took weeks and months. And so this is a small world from a geographical point of view. What we are facing today is the fact that through our scientific and technological genius we've made of this world a neighborhood.
And now through our moral and ethical commitment we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers - or we will all perish together as fools. This is the great issue facing us today.
No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone. We are tied together. I remember some time ago Mrs. King and I had the privilege of journeying to that great country, India. And I never will forget the experience - it was a marvelous experience - to meet and talk with the great leaders, with the hundreds of thousands of people all over the cities and villages of that vast country.
These experiences will remain dear to me as long as the cords of memory shall lengthen. But I say to you this morning, my friends, that there were those depressing moments, for how can one avoid being depressed when he sees with his own eyes evidence of millions of people going to bed hungry? How can one avoid being depressed when he sees with his own eyes millions of people sleeping on the sidewalks at night; no beds to sleep in; no houses to go into.
And most of these people have never seen a physician or a dentist. King returned to Oberlin in November , but was too sick with the flu to speak. His two-minute speech received a three-minute standing ovation. In October , shortly after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, his talk in Finney Chapel titled "The Future of Integration" was heard by an estimated 2, people.
This visit was accompanied by death threats. Local police officers attended the talk to provide protection for him and his press secretary.
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