Standing On Nebo

This is a clip from Martin Luther King's last speech, the "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech which was given on April 3, 1968 to a group of black sanitary workers for the city of Memphis:



On the day of April 3, King's flight from Atlanta to Memphis was delayed on account of a bomb threat made against his plane. Despite threats on his life, he gave the speech anyway. The next day, April 4, King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee.

The statements in his speech about the "mountaintop" were allusions to Moses, who saw a glimpse of the Promised Land from the top of Mount Nebo. Moses himself was not allowed to enter the promised land, but shortly thereafter, the people of Israel were allowed to enter the promised land.

In the same way, King was saying that he could see what was coming for his people. But, he himself would not make the journey with them. He knew that he was about to die. But, his dream was greater than his desire for "longevity."

Directly after his assassination, the city of Memphis brought the sanitation strike to a close by giving in to the requests of the sanitation workers. And, nationwide civil rights milestones would soon follow.

Martin Luther King was a non-violent resistor meaning, that his resistance to tyranny and to agression came not through violence but through fearlessly standing against them with his voice.

On April 3, 1968, King stood alone on "Mount Nebo" and on April 4, a nation stood posed, ready to enter a new land, taken not by guns or cannons but by the message of peace and hope.