NAME: Michael Jackson.
COUNTRY: United States of America.
DATE OF BIRTH: August 29, 1958.
DATE OF DEATH: June 25, 2009, aged 50.
OCCUPATION: Pop Musician.
SUPERVISOR/EDITOR: Harry Agina.
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Greetings!
I am Harry Agina. As the supervisory editor of “African Heroes Hall Of Fame” category of Afro-Scope productions, I will give you a brief introductory prelude to this fine story by my colleague, Asmau Suleiman.
The African Heroes Hall Of Fame features heroes of African descent around the world. We have four divisions, namely: Contemporary African Heroes on the African continent; Ancient African Heroes on the continent; Contemporary Diaspora-African Heroes; and Ancient Diaspora-African Heroes. Naturally, there are human heroes in all works of life. This is our very first hero in the music industry, and he reigned in contemporary Diaspora Africa. His name was Michael Jackson.
This is where I bring in my colleague, Asmau Suleiman with the rest of the story about the legend, Michael Jackson, who she introduces as “The Boy Who Became The King.”
Hello. I am Asmau Suleiman. On 29 August 1958, in Gary, Indiana, a child was born into a large African-American family with music already woven deeply into its life. His name was Michael Joseph Jackson. He would become one of the most recognizable entertainers the world had ever known.
But before the moonwalk, before the glittering costumes, before the records and the title King of Pop, there was simply a little boy with an extraordinary voice.
Michael was the eighth of Katherine and Joseph Jackson’s ten children. Music became part of the family’s everyday life, and the Jackson brothers began performing together while they were still young.
Then Michael stepped forward. He was only about six years old when he began performing professionally as the lead singer of the family group that would become known as “The Jackson 5.”
His brothers were Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon. Michael was the youngest. But onstage, his age seemed almost irrelevant.
He could sing…
He could dance…
He could command an audience…
And he possessed something that cannot easily be taught:
Presence!
In 1969, the Jackson 5 signed with Motown Records. Then came a remarkable beginning. Their first four Motown singles—
“I Want You Back,”
“ABC,”
“The Love You Save,” and
“I’ll Be There”— all reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Jackson 5 had arrived…
And so had Michael Jackson…
But there was something unusual about watching him.
He was a child performing with the discipline and confidence of someone much older…
The world saw the smile…
The dancing…
The voice…
The little boy in the spotlight.
But behind the performance was a childhood increasingly shaped by rehearsals, recording sessions, touring, and the demands of professional entertainment.
Michael was growing up in public. And while millions of people were learning his face, his voice and his movements, Michael was learning something else:
How to become an entertainer.
He studied performers who came before him…
He absorbed rhythm…
He watched dancers…
He listened to singers…
He learned how an audience reacted to a pause, a movement, a look or a note.
The Jackson 5 gave him the foundation. But Michael was already beginning to develop an artistic identity of his own.
THE SOLO ARTIST EMERGES:
Michael began releasing music as a solo artist while still working with his brothers. His early solo success included the 1972 hit, “Ben,” which became his first No. 1 solo single.
But Michael had not yet reached the level of artistic independence that would eventually define him. That transformation came in the second half of the 1970s.
In 1978, Michael starred as the Scarecrow in “The Wiz,” alongside Diana Ross and other major Black performers. During the production, he met producer Quincy Jones. That meeting would become one of the most important creative partnerships of Michael Jackson’s career.
Jones would produce Michael’s next three major solo albums:
“Off the Wall”…
“Thriller”…
“Bad.”
And the first of them changed everything.
“OFF THE WALL”:
Released on 10 August 1979, “Off The Wall” was Michael Jackson’s fifth solo studio album, and his first major album after leaving Motown for Epic Records. The release was 19 days before his 21st birthday. It was different from the music that had introduced him as a child…
More mature…
More sophisticated…
More confident.
Michael was no longer simply demonstrating that the talented child from the Jackson 5 could sing without his brothers. He was showing the world who he was as an adult artist.
The album produced four Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 Music Chat— first for a solo artist at the time.
“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” became No. 1 hit and earned Michael his first Grammy Award, for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male.
Off the Wall established something important. Michael Jackson was no longer simply a former child star…
He was a major solo artist in his own right.
And then, came the album that would change the scale of his life:
“THRILLER.”
On 30 November 1982, Michael Jackson released Thriller. He was 24 years old. What followed was extraordinary. The album produced seven Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 Chat— an unprecedented achievement at the time.
It crossed musical boundaries, bringing together pop, R&B, funk and rock influences.
And Michael was no longer treating music as something that existed only in the audio recording…
He was thinking visually…
The songs could have stories…
The stories could have choreography…
The choreography could become cinema…
And the cinema could become part of the music itself.
The short film for “Thriller,” running nearly fourteen minutes, was a landmark in the relationship between music and filmmaking. It used elaborate choreography, costumes, makeup, special effects and a narrative structure that made the video feel like a cinematic production rather than a conventional promotional clip.
Michael Jackson was changing the expectations placed upon a pop performer…
He was not simply a singer…
He was becoming a complete visual performer.
Then came 1983:
At the television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, Michael performed “Billie Jean.”
And during that performance, he introduced millions of viewers to the dance move that would become permanently associated with his name:
“The Moonwalk.”
The move itself did not originate with Michael Jackson; versions of the glide had existed among dancers before him.
But Michael transformed it into something unmistakably his own:
One step backward…
Then another…
The body appearing to move against the natural direction of the feet.
And suddenly, the world had another image it would never forget:
Michael Jackson and the Moonwalk.
By the time the 1984 Grammy Awards arrived, Michael Jackson’s transformation was undeniable. “Thriller” earned him eight Grammy Awards in one night, including Album of the Year, and Record of the Year. He became the first artist to win eight Grammys in a single night, a record later equaled but not surpassed.
The little boy who had once stood beside his brothers on a Motown stage had become something else entirely:
A solo superstar…
A dancer…
A songwriter…
A visual storyteller…
A performer whose influence was spreading beyond one musical genre and beyond one country.
The world had known Michael Jackson since he was a child. Now it was beginning to understand something much bigger:
Michael Jackson was no longer simply a star…
He was becoming a phenomenon…
And the next chapter would take that phenomenon from extraordinary success to global cultural power.
PHASE 2: When The World Learned The Name, Michael Jackson
Section Two: When the World Learned His Name.
Phase One gave us the boy who became the star. Now, we enter the years when the world learned exactly what that star could become.
“THRILLER” CHANGED THE SCALE:
By the time Thriller arrived on 30 November 1982, Michael Jackson was already a successful solo artist. But Thriller changed the scale of everything. The album eventually spent 37 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Chat, and produced seven Top 10 singles — an extraordinary run that crossed the boundaries of pop, R&B, funk and rock.
But the numbers tell only part of the story. Michael was changing the way popular music could be experienced…
A song could have a visual world…
A music video could become an event…
A dance move could become a cultural language…
And an album could become something people did not simply listen to — but watched, copied, discussed and remembered.
Then came “Thriller.” The nearly fourteen-minute short film was unlike the ordinary music videos of its time…
It had a storyline…
Characters…
Choreography…
Costumes…
Make-up…
Special effects…
And a cinematic ambition that made the music video feel like its own form of entertainment.
Michael was no longer simply performing songs. He was building worlds around them:
“THE MOONWALK.”
Then came 1983. At the Motown 25 television special, Michael performed “Billie Jean.”
And during that performance, he introduced millions of television viewers to the move that would become inseparable from his name:
“The moonwalk.”
The movement itself was not invented by Michael Jackson. Variations of the glide had existed in Black dance traditions and among earlier performers. But Michael transformed it into something unmistakably his:
A few steps backward…
A body apparently moving without moving forward…
A moment of stillness.
And suddenly, the whole world wanted to know:
How did he do that? The moonwalk became part of Michael Jackson’s visual vocabulary. So did the single white glove…
The fedora…
The sharp poses…
The spins…
The sudden pauses…
The precise choreography…
Michael understood something powerful:
The performer could become part of the music.
THE KING OF POP:
By the middle of the 1980s, Michael Jackson had become more than a successful recording artist. He was becoming a global cultural figure. In 1984, “Thriller” earned Michael eight Grammy Awards in one night, a record at the time. His performances were studied…
His dance moves were copied…
His clothes became recognizable…
His music crossed borders that language, geography and culture might otherwise have placed between audiences.
And Michael’s sound continued to evolve. He could move between soul, funk, R&B, pop and rock without allowing himself to be placed neatly inside one box.
On “Beat It,” for example, Eddie Van Halen’s electric-guitar work brought a striking rock element into a Michael Jackson hit. Michael was creating music that could belong to different audiences at the same time.
“BAD”:
Then came “Bad.” Released in 1987, the album produced five consecutive No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 Chat.
Songs such as “Bad,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Man in the Mirror,” “Dirty Diana,” and “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” helped make the album another major chapter in his career.
And then came the Bad World Tour. Michael was no longer simply an American star touring abroad. He had become an international performer whose concerts could draw enormous audiences across different countries and cultures. The little boy from Gary, Indiana had become a name recognized far beyond the United States.
THE WORLD SANG TOGETHER:
But Michael’s global influence was not limited to his own records. In 1985, he joined Lionel Richie in writing “We Are the World.” The song was recorded by a large group of prominent American musicians under the name “USA for Africa,” with proceeds directed toward famine relief in Africa.
It became an international humanitarian fundraising project and one of the most recognizable charity recordings of its era.
For the Afro-Scope African Heroes Hall of Fame, that connection matters — but it must be understood correctly. Michael Jackson was not an African political leader. He was an African-American artist whose ancestry belonged to the African diaspora, and whose enormous cultural platform was used, at least in this instance, to contribute to a humanitarian effort directed toward Africa. That distinction matters. Because Michael’s African story is not about pretending he was something he was not. It is about understanding how the African diaspora carried African identity, creativity and influence far beyond the continent.
And Michael Jackson became one of the most globally influential descendants of that diaspora.
WHEN FAME BECOMES SOMETHING ELSE:
But there was another side to Michael’s extraordinary success.
The bigger his fame became, the more difficult it became to separate Michael Jackson the person from Michael Jackson the public image:
The world knew the glove.
The moonwalk…
The songs…
The videos…
The costumes…
The spectacular performances.
But who was the man behind all of it? That question would become increasingly complicated, because Michael Jackson’s life was not going to remain a simple story of success. There would be wealth…
Isolation…
Philanthropy…
Changes in his appearance…
Questions about his private life…
Serious allegations…
Courtrooms…
Acquittal…
And, eventually, a death that shocked the world.
But before we enter that part of the story, we have to remember something important:
The man was larger than the headlines.
And if we are going to place Michael Jackson in the African Heroes Hall of Fame, we cannot write him as an angel…
We cannot write him as a villain…
We have to write him as a human being — extraordinarily gifted, enormously influential, deeply complicated, and impossible to reduce to one image. The crown was already firmly on his head.
Now we have to look behind it.
PHASE 3: THE MAN BEHIND THE CROWN.
The world had already seen the gloves…
The moonwalk…
The impossible choreography…
The records…
The screaming crowds…
The King of Pop…
But Michael Jackson was never only the man the world saw on stage.
Behind the crown was a human being who had spent almost his entire life being watched. And eventually, that became one of the most complicated parts of his story.
THE CHILD WHO NEVER REALLY GOT TO BE ONE:
Michael Jackson became famous so young that childhood and celebrity became intertwined.
While other children were growing up away from the public eye, Michael was rehearsing, recording, travelling and performing.
His own accounts of childhood described fear, pressure and a deep sense that he had missed something ordinary.
That history helps explain why childhood remained such a powerful theme in his adult life.
It also helps explain why his relationships with children would later become one of the most controversial parts of his public story.
But explanation is not the same thing as proof. And that distinction matters.
THE MAN WHO WANTED TO HEAL:
There was another side to Michael that is sometimes lost beneath the controversy. He gave substantial attention to humanitarian causes.
His song “Heal the World” became part of a broader humanitarian identity, and his charitable activities included efforts involving children and medical assistance.
In 1992, for example, the “Heal the World Foundation” sent American doctors to Romania to perform operations on children with eye disorders.
His humanitarian work was not limited to Africa. But his concern for children and vulnerable people became an important part of the public image he built around himself.
There was also the 1984 public-service campaign connection involving “Beat It,” for which Michael received a Presidential Public Safety Communication Award after allowing the song to be used in an anti-drunk-driving campaign.
Michael wanted the world to associate him with more than entertainment. He wanted his platform to mean something.
THE FACE THAT CHANGED:
Then, there was Michael Jackson’s appearance. Over the years, the face the world had known as a child changed dramatically…
His skin became lighter…
His facial features changed…
His nose appeared increasingly different…
And the public began asking questions.
Some of the speculation became cruel. Some became sensational. But there were also documented medical issues.
Jackson publicly said he had vitiligo, a condition that causes loss of skin pigmentation, and later examinations and testimony supported that he had the condition.
He also had lupus, according to medical evidence reported during his life. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that makes your immune system damage organs and tissue throughout your body. It causes inflammation that can affect your skin, joints, blood and organs like your kidneys, lungs and heart. At the same time, he underwent cosmetic procedures, including surgery to his nose.
So the truth was more complicated than either extreme:
Michael’s appearance changed for medical and cosmetic reasons, while the exact extent and reasons for every change cannot simply be reduced to one explanation.
And once again, the world was looking at the image…
Not necessarily the person.
WHEN THE HEADLINES TURNED DARK:
Michael Jackson’s life entered its most difficult public chapter in the 1990s. In 1993, he was accused of sexual abuse involving a 13-year-old boy. Jackson denied the allegation. The criminal investigation did not result in a criminal trial, and the civil case was settled out of court. Jackson continued to maintain his innocence.
A decade later, in 2003, another accusation led to a criminal case. Jackson was arrested. His Neverland Ranch was searched. And in 2005, he stood trial in Santa Maria, California. This time, the world watched everything.
For fourteen weeks, testimony, evidence and allegations surrounding his private life were examined in court. The case contained ten criminal counts.
And on June 13, 2005, the jury found Michael Jackson not guilty on all ten counts. The verdict is part of the historical record, and so are the allegations, the denials, and the continuing debate surrounding Michael Jackson’s life.
We do not need to turn Michael Jackson into an angel…
We do not need to turn him into a monster…
We need to understand the documented record, acknowledge what remains disputed, and recognize that immense talent does not make a person beyond scrutiny.
AFTER THE VERDICT: LIFE BEYOND THE COURTROOM:
The acquittal in 2005 brought the criminal trial to an end, but it did not restore Michael Jackson’s life to what it had been before the allegations. His supporters continued to defend him, while others remained troubled by the questions surrounding his private life. The verdict settled the criminal charges before the court; it did not end the public debate.
Michael continued working towards a return to the stage. In March 2009, he announced This Is It, a planned series of concerts at London’s O2 Arena. The initial announcement expanded to fifty performances, scheduled to begin on 13 July 2009. Rehearsals were underway in Los Angeles, and the concerts were expected to mark a major return to live performance.
But behind the preparations, Michael was experiencing serious difficulties sleeping. In the weeks before his death, his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, administered various sedatives and the powerful anaesthetic propofol in an effort to help him sleep.
THE FINAL DAYS:
On 25 June 2009, Michael Jackson was at his rented home in Los Angeles when he stopped breathing. Emergency responders attempted to revive him, and he was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was fifty years old.
His death shocked fans across the world. The concerts he had spent weeks preparing for would never take place. The rehearsal footage later became the film Michael Jackson’s This Is It, preserving a glimpse of the production that had been planned for London.
WHAT THE MEDICAL INVESTIGATION ESTABLISHED:
The official medical findings identified the cause of Michael Jackson’s death as acute propofol intoxication, with benzodiazepine effects also contributing. The medical examiner classified the manner of death as homicide.
That classification was a medical and forensic determination; it was not, by itself, a criminal conviction. The subsequent investigation and trial examined the conduct of Dr. Conrad Murray, who had administered propofol to Jackson in a home setting rather than the closely monitored conditions normally required for such a powerful anaesthetic.
In November 2011, a jury found Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to four years in custody.
The case established criminal responsibility for Murray’s conduct. It also exposed the dangers of administering a powerful anaesthetic for insomnia outside an appropriate medical setting. Michael Jackson’s death was not simply the sudden end of a concert career; it became a major case concerning medical responsibility and patient safety.
THE LEGACY:
Michael Jackson’s influence on popular music is unmistakable…
His albums helped reshape the commercial possibilities of pop music…
His short films changed expectations of what a music video could accomplish…
His choreography influenced generations of dancers…
His performances helped establish a new standard for large-scale popular entertainment…
His music continues to reach listeners who were not yet born when he performed on the world’s biggest stages.
His influence can be heard and seen across continents, including throughout Africa, where his music, dance and visual style became part of the cultural lives of many fans.
His African connection should be described honestly:
Michael Jackson was African-American, part of a community whose history is deeply connected to the African diaspora. His global influence does not make him an African political leader, nor does it mean that every aspect of his life was directly connected to the African continent. But his place in the wider African diaspora story is real.
His life demonstrates how an artist whose family history belongs to the African-American experience can shape popular culture around the world.
And that influence is part of the history Afro-Scope seeks to explore.
AFRO-SCOPE:
Michael Jackson’s story began with a little boy who loved to perform…
It grew into the story of a child star who became a global phenomenon…
It carried him through extraordinary success, artistic innovation, philanthropy, public scrutiny, legal controversy and personal difficulty.
His life was neither ordinary nor simple…
His achievements were enormous…
His controversies were serious…
And his story remains the subject of debate.
But perhaps the most important thing is to resist the temptation to reduce a human being to a single image.
Michael Jackson was more than the “Moonwalk”…
More than the glove…
More than the records…
More than the headlines…
He was a real person whose life contained extraordinary accomplishments, profound contradictions and questions that continue to challenge his admirers, his critics and the public.
The boy became the King of Pop…
The man behind the crown remained human…
And the music continues to carry his name across generations…
Africa celebrates her legends…
Africa remembers her own.
Until the next edition, be sure to continue to sing and dance Africa, in memory of “The King of Pop.”
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NAME: Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
COUNTRY: United States Of America.
DATE OF BIRTH: January 15, 1929.
DEATH OF DEATH: April 4, 1968.
The Dream That Refused to Die.
SUPERVISOR/EDITOR: Harry Agina.
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On January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, a child was born into a family deeply rooted in the Black Baptist church. His name was Michael King Jr. He would later become known to the world as Martin Luther King Jr.
Hello! I am Asma’u Suleiman, and I am here to tell you about that hero of African descent. A Baptist minister by training, King entered adulthood at a time when racial segregation in the United States of America was enforced through law, custom and violence. Black Americans could be denied equal access to schools, restaurants, transportation, voting and other public institutions simply because of the color of their skin.
King chose to challenge that system. But he did not begin alone. In 1955, Rosa Parks, anther African American was arrested after refusing to surrender her seat to white people on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Black residents responded with the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the young King, then only 26, emerged as one of its principal leaders.
The boycott lasted more than a year and helped establish King as a national figure. It also revealed something that would define much of his work: Organised, sustained, nonviolent protest could confront an unjust system.
In 1957, King helped establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), bringing Black ministers and activists together to coordinate the growing civil-rights movement. From there came marches, sit-ins, boycotts and voter-registration campaigns. There were also arrests, threats, violence and intimidation. King himself was arrested repeatedly. His home was bombed. He was attacked and subjected to intense government surveillance.
Yet, he continued to advocate nonviolent resistance. For King, nonviolence did not mean passively accepting injustice. It meant confronting injustice without allowing hatred to become the answer.
Then came 1963. The civil-rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, brought the brutality of segregation before the world. Peaceful demonstrators, including children, were met with police dogs, high-pressure water hoses and mass arrests.
Later that year, hundreds of thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. On 28 August 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King delivered the speech that would become one of the most recognised addresses in modern history:
“I have a dream…”
He imagined a country where equality would not merely be promised but lived; where his children would one day be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
The speech was powerful because it did more than describe an injustice. It described a destination. But the speech itself was not the achievement…
The struggle was.
(NOTE: See the full text of his dream at the very end of this).
In 1964, the United States passed the Civil Rights Act, outlawing racial segregation and discrimination in many areas of public life. That same year, King received the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35, becoming the youngest recipient of the prize at that time. He donated the prize money to the civil-rights movement.
But his concerns continued to expand. King increasingly spoke about poverty, economic inequality and the Vietnam War. He argued that the fight for racial justice could not be separated from the broader question of human dignity.
By 1968, he had turned his attention to Memphis, Tennessee, where sanitation workers were striking for better working conditions and economic dignity. On 3 April 1968, King delivered what would become his final major public address, known as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”
This speech was very different in mood from the dream he had described five years earlier. There was still hope, but there was also an awareness of danger and uncertainty. King spoke of the journey of the struggle and declared:
“I’ve been to the mountaintop.”
He acknowledged that he might not personally reach the promised land with his people. But he was not surrendering the journey. The following day, 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. He was 39 years old.
THE LEGACY:
Martin Luther King Jr. did not single-handedly create the American civil-rights movement. He was part of a much larger movement made up of thousands of ordinary people, activists, organisers, lawyers, students, ministers and communities who challenged racial segregation and discrimination.
But King became one of its most recognizable voices. His speeches travelled far beyond the United States. His philosophy of nonviolent resistance influenced movements around the world. His work became part of the history surrounding landmark legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave Blacks the right to vote during elections across the United States of America.
And Martin Luther King, Jr’s concerns extended beyond race. He spoke about poverty…
About workers…
About war…
About dignity…
About the responsibility of a society to make freedom meaningful for everyone.
That is why remembering Martin Luther King Jr. only as the man who said “I have a dream” is to remember only one part of the story…
He was a preacher…
A strategist…
A protest leader…
A husband…
A father…
A scholar…
A Nobel Peace Prize laureate. A man who was watched, threatened, arrested and ultimately killed because of the movement he helped lead.
But above all, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man who believed that justice could be pursued without surrendering humanity in the process.
His life ended in violence…
His dream did not…
This has been the African Heroes Hall of Fame…
Africa’s story does not end at the continent’s shores…
It travelled with her people…
It survived across oceans…
And wherever her people stood to demand dignity, justice and freedom, the story continued…
Africa celebrates her legends…
Africa remembers her own…
And Afro-Scope celebrates and echoes the African story all over the world.
FULL TEXT OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.:
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed – we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
“I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
“I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
“This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
“With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
“This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning: “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
“And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California.
But not only that.
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!
“And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
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