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pay the price. And for a while, Americans answered, "We will."
But when it began to pinch and squeeze, their commitment began to fade.

The 1960s movement and the ferment which preceded it grew
from the willingness of ordinary people -- housewives, students,
a seamstress, teachers, a railroad porter -- to seize control of
their lives.

They did not wait for mythic charismatic leaders to organize
a march or boycott; they organized themselves.

They did not wait for mass approval -- they faced rejection,
knowing they were right.

Today, we wait for others to certify our politics, to give
sanction to our protests.

It took one woman's courage to start a movement in
Montgomery, the bravery of only four young men in Greensboro
to set the South on fire.

Surely there are men and women -- young and old -- here
today who can do the same. If there are hungry minds and hungry
bodies starving near these wealthy walls, someone here can feed them.

If there are precincts of the powerless poor nearby, someone
here can organize them.

If there is racial injustice on the campus or in the town,
someone here can conquer it.

If America still spends more on guns than butter, someone
here can reverse that ancient trend.

Now is the time in the third century of our republic to make