Fifty years on to this very month, King's defiant cri de coeur could hardly be more apt to express the barbarous injustice being committed by the US government against one of that nation's bravest defence lawyers - Lynne Stewart.
Ms Stewart (73) is dying in a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, from cancer that has spread from her breast to the rest of her body. Her family has little doubt that her life-threatening illness has been induced by the vindictive conditions of her incarceration by the US authorities.
Ralph Poynter, her husband for the past 50 years, and more than 10,000 petition signatories from across the world are mobilising to face down the barbarity of the American regime. Her supporters are demanding Lynne's immediate release from her prison cell on compassionate and legally entitled grounds.
Lynne Stewart's story is not just one of personal harrowing torment. The US state's cruel persecution of this woman epitomises the general destruction of human rights and the rise of draconian police powers across America in the aftermath of 9/11 and the fraudulent "war on terror".
