The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stretches from landmark federal laws such as The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Voting Rights Act of 1965 to the numerous elementary, middle, and high schools that have taken his name. But many remember King for his stirring and influential speeches.

King's career as an ordained minister helped prepare him for his oratorical mission. As a believer in nonviolent change, he used words as an important resource in his fight against segregation in the South. And his first job as a clergyman in Montgomery, Alabama, strengthened his cause.

It was in Montgomery that a black woman named Rosa Parks made history in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. Her action defied Alabama's segregation laws, which specifically required blacks to sit in a section at the back of buses. King began leading nonviolent protests and marches against segregation laws throughout Alabama and other southern states.

Although King met with presidents at the White House and appeared on the cover of Time magazine, the Lincoln Memorial eventually provided his most visible stage. On August 28, 1963 he spoke to the 200,000 protesters who had joined the Civil Rights March on Washington — and to the world that also watched.

King made his last speech in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated at a nearby motel. He had visited Memphis several times in support of striking black sanitation workers. In recent years, he had expanded his civil rights campaigns to focus on reducing poverty, improving labor conditions, and ending the ongoing war in Vietnam.

Now King urged that black people in Memphis and around the country boycott businesses that contributed to discrimination. He even differed with fellow black ministers who were asking that he take a more patient, spiritual approach.

He made his disagreement clear in that final speech:

It's all right to talk about long robes over yonder, in all of its symbolism, but ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It's all right to talk about streets flowing with milk and honey, but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and His children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

• What aspects of this speech are similar to the excerpts from the "I Have a Dream" speech?
• What does King mean by the "long robes over yonder"?
• How does King use contrasts to make his point?
• What does King mean when he refers to the "new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia," and so on? What does he envision for these places and for America as a whole?

King seemed to sum up his life's work, and to foreshadow what was about to happen to him, in a rousing conclusion that has been played and replayed for the past 33 years.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life—longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything; I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. (From the "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University)