List of speeches by Martin Luther King

The sermons and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. comprise an extensive catalog of American writing and oratory — some of which are internationally well-known, while others remain unheralded, and some await re-discovery. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a prominent African American clergyman, a civil rights leader, and a Nobel laureate.

King himself observed, "In the quiet recesses of my heart, I am fundamentally a clergyman, a Baptist preacher."

Speechwriter and orator
The famous "I Have a Dream" address was delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Less well-remembered are the early sermons of of that young, twenty-five year-old pastor who first began preaching at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954. As a political leader in the Civil Rights Movement and as a modest preacher in a Baptist church, King evolved and matured across the span of a life cut short. The range of his rhetoric was anticipated and encompassed within "The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life," which he preached as his trial sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in 1954 and every year thereafter for the rest of his life.

Sermons

* 1953 -- "The Three Dimensions of A Complete Life."
* 1954 -- "Rediscovering Lost Values," February 28, 1954.
* 1956 -- "Paul's Letter to American Christians," November 4, 1956.
* 1957 -- "The Birth of a New Nation," April 7, 1957.
* 1957 -- "Loving Your Enemies," November 17, 1957.
* 1963 -- "Eulogy for the Martyred Children," September 18, 1963. (Birmingham, Alabama)
* 1965 -- "How Long, Not Long.", also known as "Our God Is Marching On," March 25, 1965 . (Montgomery, Alabama)

* 1967 -- "Why Jesus Called A Man A Fool," also known as "A Knock at Midnight," August 27, 1967. (Chicago, Illinois) -- see
* 1968 -- "I've Been to the Mountaintop," April 3, 1968. (Memphis, Tennessee)

Speeches

* 1955 "Montgomery Improvement Association mass meeting speech," December 5, 1955. (Montgomery, Alabama)

* 1957 -- "A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations," April 10, 1957. (St. Louis, Missouri)
* 1957 -- "Give Us the Ballot," May 17, 1957. (Washington, D.C.)
* 1963 -- "Great March on Detroit speech," June 23, 1963. (Detroit, Michigan)
* 1963 -- "I have a Dream," August 28, 1963 (Washington D.C)

* 1964 -- "Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech," December 10, 1964 (Stockholm).
* 1964 -- "The Quest for Peace and Justice," December 11, 1964 (Stockholm).
* 1967 -- "Beyond Vietnam," April 4, 1967. (New York, New York)
* 1967 -- "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam." April 30., 1967.

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