Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Other America Speech (1967) at Stanford (Full Transcript)

Here is the transcript and summary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech titled “The Other America” which was delivered at Stanford on April 14, 1967.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Mr. Bell, members of the faculty and members of the student body of this great institution of learning, ladies and gentlemen.

Now there are several things that one could talk about before such a large, concerned and enlightened audience. There are so many problems facing our nation and our world that one could just take off anywhere. But today I would like to talk mainly about the race problems since I’ll have to rush right out and go to New York to talk about Vietnam tomorrow, and I’ve been talking about it a great deal this week and weeks before that.

TWO AMERICAS

I’d like to use as a subject from which to speak this afternoon: The Other America. And I use this subject because there are literally two Americas. One America is beautiful for a situation. And in a sense this America is overflowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of opportunity. This America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies and culture and education for their minds, and freedom and human dignity for their spirits.