I Have a Dream
50 years ago, today, on Wednesday 28th August 1963, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr delivered one of the most famous speeches in American history, during the march on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
“I Have A Dream” is known for its powerful and inspirational words, and it played a significant role in the American civil rights movement.
In his speech, Dr. King spoke passionately about his vision for a racially integrated and harmonious America, where individuals would be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”
He shared his dream of a future where racial segregation and discrimination would be eradicated, and equality and justice would prevail.
Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech continues to be a symbol of hope, equality, and the ongoing struggle for civil rights and social justice in the United States and around the world. It remains a powerful reminder of the importance of unity and the pursuit of a more just and equitable society.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was intended to demonstrate mass support for the civil rights legislation proposed by President John F. Kennedy in June 63.
Martin Luther King and other leaders, therefore, agreed to keep their speeches calm, also, to avoid provoking the civil disobedience which had become the hallmark of the Civil Rights Movement.
King originally designed his speech as a homage to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, timed to correspond with the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.
He had been preaching about dreams since 1960, when he gave a speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) called “The Negro and the American Dream”.
This speech discusses the space between the American dream and reality, saying that overt white supremacists have violated the dream, and that “our federal government has also scarred the dream through its apathy and hypocrisy, its betrayal of the cause of justice”.
King suggests that “It may well be that the Negro is God’s instrument to save the soul of America.”
In 1961, he spoke of the Civil Rights Movement and student activists’ “dream” of equality—”the American Dream … a dream as yet unfulfilled”—in several national speeches and statements and took “the dream” as the centrepiece for these speeches.
“I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream – one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream”
Martin Luther King Jnr
(15 Jan 1929 – 4 April 1968)