Good evening, my fellow citizens: 晚上好，我的同胞们：
This afternoon, following a series of threats and defiant statements, the presence of Alabama National Guardsmen was required on the University of Alabama to carry out the final and unequivocal order of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Alabama. That order called for the admission of two clearly qualified young Alabama residents who happened to have been born Negro. 今天下午，在一系列威胁和挑衅性声明之后，阿拉巴马国民警卫队必须进驻阿拉巴马大学，以执行美国阿拉巴马北区联邦地区法院最终且明确的命令。该命令要求录取两名显然合格的阿拉巴马年轻居民，他们恰好生为黑人。
That they were admitted peacefully on the campus is due in good measure to the conduct of the students of the University of Alabama, who met their responsibilities in a constructive way. I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. 他们能够和平地进入校园，在很大程度上归功于阿拉巴马大学学生们的表现，他们以建设性的方式履行了自己的责任。我希望每一个美国人，无论居住在哪里，都能停下来，就这一事件以及其他相关事件审视自己的良知。
This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. 这个国家由来自许多国家和背景的人建立。它建立在人人生而平等的原则之上，并且当一个人的权利受到威胁时，每个人的权利都会因此减损。今天，我们致力于一场全球性的斗争，以促进和保护所有渴望自由者的权利。
And when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops. It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street. 当美国人被派往越南或西柏林时，我们并不只要白人。因此，任何肤色的美国学生都应该能够进入他们选择的任何公共机构就读，而无需军队的支持。任何肤色的美国消费者都应该能够在公共场所——如旅馆、餐厅、剧院和零售店——获得平等的服务，而不必被迫诉诸街头示威。
And it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal. It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case. 任何肤色的美国公民都应该能够登记并在自由选举中投票，不受干涉，也不必担心遭到报复。简而言之，每一个美国人都应该能够不分种族或肤色地享受作为美国人的特权。简言之，每个美国人都应有权得到他所希望受到的对待，正如他希望自己的子女受到的对待一样。然而，事实并非如此。
The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the State in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed, about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year, a life expectancy which is 7 years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much. 今天在美国出生的黑人婴儿，无论出生在该州的哪个地区，其完成高中学业的机会约为同一天在同一地点出生的白人婴儿的一半，完成大学学业的机会为三分之一，成为专业人员的机会为三分之一，失业的可能性是两倍，年收入达到一万美元的机会约为七分之一，预期寿命短七年，而收入前景仅为白人的一半。
This is not a sectional issue. Difficulties over segregation and discrimination exist in every city, in every State of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety. Nor is this a partisan issue. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics. 这不是一个地区性问题。种族隔离和歧视的困难存在于联邦的每一个城市、每一个州，在许多城市中激起了日益高涨的不满浪潮，威胁到公共安全。这也不是一个党派问题。在国内危机时期，善意和慷慨的人们应当能够超越党派和政治团结起来。
This is not even a legal or legislative issue alone. It is better to settle these matters in the courts than on the streets, and new laws are needed at every level, but law alone cannot make men see right. We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution. 这甚至不仅仅是一个法律或立法问题。在法庭上解决这些问题总比在街头解决更好，各级都需要新的法律，但仅靠法律无法让人们看清正义。我们面临的首要是一个道德问题。它如同圣经一样古老，如同美国宪法一样清晰。
The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who will represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? 问题的核心在于：是否所有美国人都能获得平等的权利和机会，我们是否将像希望自己被对待那样对待同胞。如果一个美国人因为肤色深就不能在向公众开放的餐厅里吃午餐，不能把孩子送到最好的公立学校，不能投票选举代表他的公职人员，简而言之，不能享受我们所有人都向往的完整而自由的生活，那么我们当中有谁愿意改变自己的肤色站在他的位置上还感到心安？
Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay? One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. 我们当中有谁会满足于耐心和拖延的劝告？自林肯总统解放奴隶以来，一百年已经过去，然而他们的后代，他们的孙子，仍未能完全自由。他们尚未摆脱不公正的枷锁，尚未摆脱社会和经济的压迫。
And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free. We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes? 这个国家，尽管有种种希望和自诩，在所有公民获得自由之前，不会完全自由。我们在世界各处宣扬自由，我们是认真的，我们珍视国内的自由，但是我们是否要对世界说，更重要的是，彼此之间说：这是一片自由的土地，但黑人除外；我们没有二等公民，但黑人除外；我们没有阶级或种姓制度、没有贫民窟、没有优等种族，但对黑人除外？
Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise. The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or State or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them. The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city, North and South, where legal remedies are not at hand. Redress is sought in the streets, in demonstrations, parades, and protests which create tensions and threaten violence and threaten lives. 现在，这个国家履行其承诺的时刻已经到来。伯明翰及其他地方的事件使平等的呼声如此高涨，没有任何城市、州或立法机构可以明智地选择无视它们。在法律救济难以实现的每一个城市——无论南方还是北方——挫败与不和的火焰正在燃烧。人们在街头、在示威、游行和抗议中寻求救济，这制造了紧张局势，并威胁到暴力和生命。
We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and as a people. It cannot be met by repressive police action. It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is a time to act in the Congress, in your State and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives. 因此，我们作为一个国家和一个民族面临着一场道德危机。它无法通过镇压性的警察行动来解决，不能交由街头更多的示威来处理，也无法通过象征性的举措或空谈来平息。这是在国会、在你们所在的州和地方立法机构采取行动的时候，最重要的是，在我们所有人的日常生活中采取行动的时候。
It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all. Those who do nothing are inviting shame, as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right, as well as reality. 仅仅把责任推给别人，说这是国内某一地区的问题，或哀叹我们所面对的事实，是不够的。一场伟大的变革即将到来，我们的任务、我们的义务，是使那场革命、那场变革对所有人而言都是和平而富有建设性的。无所作为者招致的是耻辱，也是暴力；果敢行动者认识到的是正义，也是现实。
Next week I shall ask the Congress of the United States to act, to make a commitment it has not fully made in this century to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law. The Federal judiciary has upheld that proposition in a series of forthright cases. The Executive Branch has adopted that proposition in the conduct of its affairs, including the employment of Federal personnel, the use of Federal facilities, and the sale of federally financed housing. 下周，我将请求美国国会采取行动，作出本世纪尚未完全作出的承诺，即种族在美国生活或法律中不应有立足之地。联邦司法机构已在一系列明确的案件中支持了这一主张。行政分支在处理其事务时也已采纳了这一主张，包括联邦人员的雇佣、联邦设施的使用以及联邦资助住房的销售。
But there are other necessary measures which only the Congress can provide, and they must be provided at this session. The old code of equity law under which we live commands for every wrong a remedy, but in too many communities, in too many parts of the country, wrongs are inflicted on Negro citizens and there are no remedies at law. Unless the Congress acts, their only remedy is the street. 但还有其他只有国会才能提供的必要措施，必须在本届会期内提供。我们所遵循的衡平法古老法典规定，每一项过错都应有救济，但在太多的社区、太多的地区，黑人公民遭受侵害却无法在法律上获得救济。除非国会采取行动，他们唯一的救济就是街头。
I am, therefore, asking the Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public -- hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments. This seems to me to be an elementary right. Its denial is an arbitrary indignity that no American in 1963 should have to endure, but many do. 因此，我请求国会立法，赋予所有美国人在向公众开放的设施——旅馆、餐厅、剧院、零售店及类似场所——获得服务的权利。在我看来，这是一项基本的权利。对它的剥夺是一种专横的侮辱，1963年没有任何美国人应当被迫忍受，但许多人仍在忍受。
I have recently met with scores of business leaders urging them to take voluntary action to end this discrimination, and I have been encouraged by their response, and in the last two weeks over 75 cities have seen progress made in desegregating these kinds of facilities. But many are unwilling to act alone, and for this reason, nationwide legislation is needed if we are to move this problem from the streets to the courts. 我最近会见了数十位商界领袖，敦促他们采取自愿行动结束这种歧视，他们的回应令我备受鼓舞，在过去两周里，超过75个城市在取消这类设施的种族隔离方面取得了进展。但许多人不愿单独行动，因此，如果我们要将这一问题从街头转移到法庭，就需要全国性的立法。
I am also asking the Congress to authorize the Federal Government to participate more fully in lawsuits designed to end segregation in public education. We have succeeded in persuading many districts to desegregate voluntarily. Dozens have admitted Negroes without violence. Today, a Negro is attending a State-supported institution in every one of our 50 States, but the pace is very slow. 我同时请求国会授权联邦政府更充分地参与旨在结束公共教育种族隔离的诉讼。我们已经成功说服了许多学区自愿取消隔离。数十个学区在没有暴力的情况下录取了黑人。今天，在我们50个州中的每一个，都有黑人就读于州政府支持的机构，但进展非常缓慢。
Too many Negro children entering segregated grade schools at the time of the Supreme Court decision nine years ago will enter segregated high schools this fall, having suffered a loss which can never be restored. The lack of an adequate education denies the Negro a chance to get a decent job. The orderly implementation of the Supreme Court decision, therefore, cannot be left solely to those who may not have the economic resources to carry the legal action or who may be subject to harassment. 太多在最高法院作出判决九年前进入种族隔离小学的黑人儿童，今年秋天将进入种族隔离的高中，他们已遭受了永远无法弥补的损失。缺乏适当的教育使黑人无法获得体面的工作。因此，最高法院判决的有序实施不能仅仅交给那些可能没有经济资源承担法律诉讼、或可能遭受骚扰的人。
Other features will be also requested, including greater protection for the right to vote. But legislation, I repeat, cannot solve this problem alone. It must be solved in the homes of every American in every community across our country. In this respect I wanna pay tribute to those citizens North and South who have been working in their communities to make life better for all. 还将要求其他方面的措施，包括对投票权的更大保护。但我重申，立法本身无法解决这个问题。它必须在我国每一个社区每一个美国人的家庭中得到解决。在这方面，我要向那些在南北各地社区中致力于为所有人改善生活的公民们致敬。
They are acting not out of sense of legal duty but out of a sense of human decency. Like our soldiers and sailors in all parts of the world they are meeting freedom's challenge on the firing line, and I salute them for their honor and their courage. My fellow Americans, this is a problem which faces us all -- in every city of the North as well as the South. 他们的行动并非出于法律义务感，而是出于人类尊严感。如同我们在世界各地的士兵和水手，他们正在火线上迎接自由的挑战，我为他们的荣誉和勇气致敬。我的同胞们，这是一个摆在我们所有人面前的问题——在北方和南方的每一个城市都是如此。
Today, there are Negroes unemployed, two or three times as many compared to whites, inadequate education, moving into the large cities, unable to find work, young people particularly out of work without hope, denied equal rights, denied the opportunity to eat at a restaurant or a lunch counter or go to a movie theater, denied the right to a decent education, denied almost today the right to attend a State university even though qualified. 今天，黑人失业人数是白人的两到三倍，他们教育不足，涌入大城市却找不到工作，年轻人尤其失业、毫无希望；他们被剥夺平等权利，被剥夺在餐厅或午餐柜台就餐、去电影院的权利，被剥夺获得体面教育的权利，几乎在今天，即使合格也被剥夺进入州立大学的权利。
It seems to me that these are matters which concern us all, not merely Presidents or Congressmen or Governors, but every citizen of the United States. This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents. 在我看来，这些是关乎我们所有人的问题，不仅是总统、国会议员或州长的事，而是每一个美国公民的事。这是一个国家。它之所以成为一个国家，是因为我们所有人和所有来到这里的人都有平等的机会发展自己的才能。
We cannot say to ten percent of the population that you can't have that right; that your children cannot have the chance to develop whatever talents they have; that the only way that they are going to get their rights is to go in the street and demonstrate. I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that. 我们不能对百分之十的人口说：你不能拥有那样的权利；你的孩子不能有机会发展他们所拥有的任何才能；他们获得权利的唯一途径就是走上街头示威。我认为，我们欠他们、也欠我们自己一个比这更好的国家。
Therefore, I'm asking for your help in making it easier for us to move ahead and to provide the kind of equality of treatment which we would want ourselves; to give a chance for every child to be educated to the limit of his talents. As I've said before, not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves. 因此，我请求你们的帮助，使我们更容易向前迈进，提供那种我们自己也会想要的平等对待；让每个孩子都有机会接受与其才能相称的极限教育。正如我之前所说，并非每个孩子都有同等的才能、能力或动机，但他们应当拥有平等的权利去发展自己的才能、能力和动机，去成就自己。
We have a right to expect that the Negro community will be responsible, will uphold the law, but they have a right to expect that the law will be fair, that the Constitution will be color blind, as Justice Harlan said at the turn of the century. This is what we're talking about and this is a matter which concerns this country and what it stands for, and in meeting it I ask the support of all our citizens. 我们有权期望黑人社区承担责任、维护法律，但他们也有权期望法律是公正的，期望宪法是色盲的——正如哈伦大法官在本世纪初所言。这就是我们所讨论的，这是一个关乎这个国家及其所代表价值的问题，在应对它时，我请求所有公民的支持。
Thank you very much. 非常感谢大家。