--- ---  # Read MLK's Moving Words Upon Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 10, 2014 2:00 PM UTC  From the Dec. 18, 1964, issue of TIME From the Dec. 18, 1964, issue of TIMETIME  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 10, 2014 2:00 PM UTC When the Nobel Prize Committee announced 50 years ago next Tuesday that Martin Luther King Jr. would receive the Peace Prize, reactions were — unsurprisingly — mixed. As TIME [noted](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,897308,00.html) in its Oct. 23, 1964, issue, those who opposed the Civil Rights cause were outraged: the news, said one Louisiana segregationist, was evidence of Communist influence on the Committee. But beyond the bigoted strongholds of Jim Crow, support for the decision was [widespread](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,870676-2,00.html). King, at the time the youngest person ever to get that particular honor, said that he would dedicate all of the $54,000 that accompanied to award to toward the cause of equal rights. The Civil Rights leader was, TIME reported, getting a routine physical on the day the news broke. But when he appeared in Oslo that December to collect the award, he got the chance to speak eloquently about about why that funding was still desperately needed — and why he felt a Peace Prize was appropriate for a movement that had a lot of fighting left to do. Here’s the excerpt of his speech that TIME published in the Dec. 18 issue: --- > “” --- **_Read TIME’s full report on Martin Luther King Jr’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, here in the archives:_** [Race: T](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,876453,00.html)[wo Perspectives](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,876453,00.html) **_The full speech can be found here, at the official website of the Nobel Prize:_** [Nobel Peace Prize 1964, Acceptance Speech](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel%5Fprizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-acceptance%5Fen.html) Martin Luther King Jr Nobel Peace Prize Speech ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3479191/mlk-nobel-prize/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3479191/mlk-nobel-prize/"},"headline":"Read MLK's Moving Words Upon Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize","datePublished":"2014-10-10T14:00:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:38:29.930Z","description":"The news that the Civil Rights leader would get the prize broke 50 years ago, on Oct. 14, 1964","url":"https://time.com/3479191/mlk-nobel-prize/","keywords":["Civil Rights","MLK","Nobel Peace Prize","martin luther king jr","nobel prize"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79114d09dae775ac/69875f26524fc03cc4de9a90/mlk.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt79114d09dae775ac/69875f26524fc03cc4de9a90/mlk.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MLK Speech","caption":"MLK Speech","creditText":"TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/civil-rights/","name":"Civil Rights"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3479191/mlk-nobel-prize/","name":"Read MLK's Moving Words Upon Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize"}}]}] ```