As part of the Joliet Job Corps Center’s February celebration of Black History Month, staff member Wendell Martin delivered on Monday morning a speech written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“All, Here, and Now!” originally was given on June 17, 1966, at a rally in Detroit, Michigan, Mr. Martin said.

“It is a very short speech and it is not widely known,” Mr. Martin told the students. The speech focuses on three words: all, here and now.

“These are three little words but these words say, ‘We want all of our rights,’” Mr. Martin said, explaining the meaning of Dr. King’s message.

Before he began the speech, Mr. Martin urged the students to be concerned about the important things in life. Too many of them focused on the insignificant and missed the monumental, he said.

And then he began his presentation.

“What we are saying to this nation is that we want all of our rights; we want them here; and we want all of them not next year; not next week; but we want them now, at this hour! This is what we’re saying,” Mr. Martin said.