On His Birthday, Watch MLK’s ‘Black is Beautiful’ Speech

MLK said freedom and self-respect are never given, but must be unapologetically taken.

By Jorge Rivas Jan 15, 2013

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born 84-years ago today in Atlanta, Georgia. The civil rights icon is known for his powerful "I have a dream" speech but there are dozens of moving speeches he delivered. In the video at the top of the page MLK delivers a speech urging everyone to sign their own emancipation proclamation: > I come here tonight and plead with you. Believe in yourself and believe that you are somebody. I said to a grop last night, — Nobody else can do this for us. No document can do this for us. No Lincolnian emancipation proclamation can do this for us. No Johnsonian civil rights bill can do this for us. > > If the Negro is to be free, he must move down into the inner resources of his own soul and sign with a pen and ink of self-assertive manhood his own emancipation proclamation. This coming Monday, January 21st, President Obama will take his[ second oath of office](https://colorlines.com/archives/2013/01/obama_to_use_lincolns_and_martin_luther_kings_bibles_for_swearing-in.html) by placing his hands on top of the bibles that belonged to Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.