argumentative speech martin luther king

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‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 19, 2023 | Original: November 30, 2017

The “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. before a crowd of some 250,000 people at the 1963 March on Washington, remains one of the most famous speeches in history. Weaving in references to the country’s Founding Fathers and the Bible , King used universal themes to depict the struggles of African Americans before closing with an improvised riff on his dreams of equality. The eloquent speech was immediately recognized as a highlight of the successful protest, and has endured as one of the signature moments of the civil rights movement .

Civil Rights Movement Before the Speech

Martin Luther King Jr. , a young Baptist minister, rose to prominence in the 1950s as a spiritual leader of the burgeoning civil rights movement and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SLCC).

By the early 1960s, African Americans had seen gains made through organized campaigns that placed its participants in harm’s way but also garnered attention for their plight. One such campaign, the 1961 Freedom Rides , resulted in vicious beatings for many participants, but resulted in the Interstate Commerce Commission ruling that ended the practice of segregation on buses and in stations.

Similarly, the Birmingham Campaign of 1963, designed to challenge the Alabama city’s segregationist policies, produced the searing images of demonstrators being beaten, attacked by dogs and blasted with high-powered water hoses.

Around the time he wrote his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King decided to move forward with the idea for another event that coordinated with Negro American Labor Council (NACL) founder A. Philip Randolph’s plans for a job rights march.

March on Washington

Thanks to the efforts of veteran organizer Bayard Rustin, the logistics of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom came together by the summer of 1963.

Joining Randolph and King were the fellow heads of the “Big Six” civil rights organizations: Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Whitney Young of the National Urban League (NUL), James Farmer of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Other influential leaders also came aboard, including Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Joachim Prinz of the American Jewish Congress (AJC).

Scheduled for August 28, the event was to consist of a mile-long march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, in honor of the president who had signed the Emancipation Proclamation a century earlier, and would feature a series of prominent speakers.

Its stated goals included demands for desegregated public accommodations and public schools, redress of violations of constitutional rights and an expansive federal works program to train employees.

The March on Washington produced a bigger turnout than expected, as an estimated 250,000 people arrived to participate in what was then the largest gathering for an event in the history of the nation’s capital.

Along with notable speeches by Randolph and Lewis, the audience was treated to performances by folk luminaries Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and gospel favorite Mahalia Jackson .

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech Origins

In preparation for his turn at the event, King solicited contributions from colleagues and incorporated successful elements from previous speeches. Although his “I have a dream” segment did not appear in his written text, it had been used to great effect before, most recently during a June 1963 speech to 150,000 supporters in Detroit.

Unlike his fellow speakers in Washington, King didn’t have the text ready for advance distribution by August 27. He didn’t even sit down to write the speech until after arriving at his hotel room later that evening, finishing up a draft after midnight.

‘Free At Last’

As the March on Washington drew to a close, television cameras beamed Martin Luther King’s image to a national audience. He began his speech slowly but soon showed his gift for weaving recognizable references to the Bible, the U.S. Constitution and other universal themes into his oratory.

Pointing out how the country’s founders had signed a “promissory note” that offered great freedom and opportunity, King noted that “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.'”

At times warning of the potential for revolt, King nevertheless maintained a positive, uplifting tone, imploring the audience to “go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.”

Mahalia Jackson Prompts MLK: 'Tell 'em About the Dream, Martin'

Around the halfway point of the speech, Mahalia Jackson implored him to “Tell ’em about the ‘Dream,’ Martin.” Whether or not King consciously heard, he soon moved away from his prepared text.

Repeating the mantra, “I have a dream,” he offered up hope that “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” and the desire to “transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”

“And when this happens,” he bellowed in his closing remarks, “and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'”

7 Things You May Not Know About MLK’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech ranks among the most famous in history, but there are a few lesser‑known facts about the 1963 moment.

Civil Rights Movement Timeline

The civil rights movement was an organized effort by black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. It began in the late 1940s and ended in the late 1960s.

An Intimate View of MLK Through the Lens of a Friend

“Outside of my immediate family, his was the greatest friendship I have ever known or experienced,” photographer Flip Schulke said of Martin Luther King Jr.

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech Text

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence , they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men, yes, Black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check—a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"

We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only."

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exhalted [sic], every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

MLK Speech Reception

King’s stirring speech was immediately singled out as the highlight of the successful march.

James Reston of The New York Times wrote that the “pilgrimage was merely a great spectacle” until King’s turn, and James Baldwin later described the impact of King’s words as making it seem that “we stood on a height, and could see our inheritance; perhaps we could make the kingdom real.”

Just three weeks after the march, King returned to the difficult realities of the struggle by eulogizing three of the girls killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

Still, his televised triumph at the feet of Lincoln brought favorable exposure to his movement, and eventually helped secure the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 . The following year, after the violent Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama, African Americans secured another victory with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 .

Over the final years of his life, King continued to spearhead campaigns for change even as he faced challenges by increasingly radical factions of the movement he helped popularize. Shortly after visiting Memphis, Tennessee, in support of striking sanitation workers, and just hours after delivering another celebrated speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” King was assassinated by shooter James Earl Ray on the balcony of his hotel room on April 4, 1968.

'I Have a Dream' Speech Legacy

Remembered for its powerful imagery and its repetition of a simple and memorable phrase, King’s “I Have a Dream” speech has endured as a signature moment of the civil rights struggle, and a crowning achievement of one of the movement’s most famous faces.

The Library of Congress added the speech to the National Recording Registry in 2002, and the following year the National Park Service dedicated an inscribed marble slab to mark the spot where King stood that day.

In 2016, Time included the speech as one of its 10 greatest orations in history.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Watch acclaimed Black History documentaries on HISTORY Vault.

“I Have a Dream,” Address Delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute . March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. National Park Service . JFK, A. Philip Randolph and the March on Washington. The White House Historical Association . The Lasting Power of Dr. King’s Dream Speech. The New York Times .

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A Summary and Analysis of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘I Have a Dream’ is one of the greatest speeches in American history. Delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68) in Washington D.C. in 1963, the speech is a powerful rallying cry for racial equality and for a fairer and equal world in which African Americans will be as free as white Americans.

If you’ve ever stayed up till the small hours working on a presentation you’re due to give the next day, tearing your hair out as you try to find the right words, you can take solace in the fact that as great an orator as Martin Luther King did the same with one of the most memorable speeches ever delivered.

He reportedly stayed up until 4am the night before he was due to give his ‘I Have a Dream’, writing it out in longhand. You can read the speech in full here .

‘I Have a Dream’: background

The occasion for King’s speech was the march on Washington , which saw some 210,000 African American men, women, and children gather at the Washington Monument in August 1963, before marching to the Lincoln Memorial.

They were marching for several reasons, including jobs (many of them were out of work), but the main reason was freedom: King and many other Civil Rights leaders sought to remove segregation of black and white Americans and to ensure black Americans were treated the same as white Americans.

1963 was the centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation , in which then US President Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) had freed the African slaves in the United States in 1863. But a century on from the abolition of slavery, King points out, black Americans still are not free in many respects.

‘I Have a Dream’: summary

King begins his speech by reminding his audience that it’s a century, or ‘five score years’, since that ‘great American’ Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This ensured the freedom of the African slaves, but Black Americans are still not free, King points out, because of racial segregation and discrimination.

America is a wealthy country, and yet many Black Americans live in poverty. It is as if the Black American is an exile in his own land. King likens the gathering in Washington to cashing a cheque: in other words, claiming money that is due to be paid.

Next, King praises the ‘magnificent words’ of the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence . King compares these documents to a promissory note, because they contain the promise that all men, including Black men, will be guaranteed what the Declaration of Independence calls ‘inalienable rights’: namely, ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.

King asserts that America in the 1960s has ‘defaulted’ on this promissory note: in other words, it has refused to pay up. King calls it a ‘sacred obligation’, but America as a nation is like someone who has written someone else a cheque that has bounced and the money owed remains to be paid. But it is not because the money isn’t there: America, being a land of opportunity, has enough ‘funds’ to ensure everyone is prosperous enough.

King urges America to rise out of the ‘valley’ of segregation to the ‘sunlit path of racial justice’. He uses the word ‘brotherhood’ to refer to all Americans, since all men and women are God’s children. He also repeatedly emphasises the urgency of the moment. This is not some brief moment of anger but a necessary new start for America. However, King cautions his audience not to give way to bitterness and hatred, but to fight for justice in the right manner, with dignity and discipline.

Physical violence and militancy are to be avoided. King recognises that many white Americans who are also poor and marginalised feel a kinship with the Civil Rights movement, so all Americans should join together in the cause. Police brutality against Black Americans must be eradicated, as must racial discrimination in hotels and restaurants. States which forbid Black Americans from voting must change their laws.

Martin Luther King then comes to the most famous part of his speech, in which he uses the phrase ‘I have a dream’ to begin successive sentences (a rhetorical device known as anaphora ). King outlines the form that his dream, or ambition or wish for a better America, takes.

His dream, he tells his audience, is ‘deeply rooted’ in the American Dream: that notion that anybody, regardless of their background, can become prosperous and successful in the United States. King once again reminds his listeners of the opening words of the Declaration of Independence: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

In his dream of a better future, King sees the descendants of former Black slaves and the descendants of former slave owners united, sitting and eating together. He has a dream that one day his children will live in a country where they are judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

Even in Mississippi and Alabama, states which are riven by racial injustice and hatred, people of all races will live together in harmony. King then broadens his dream out into ‘our hope’: a collective aspiration and endeavour. King then quotes the patriotic American song ‘ My Country, ’Tis of Thee ’, which describes America as a ‘sweet land of liberty’.

King uses anaphora again, repeating the phrase ‘let freedom ring’ several times in succession to suggest how jubilant America will be on the day that such freedoms are ensured. And when this happens, Americans will be able to join together and be closer to the day when they can sing a traditional African-American hymn : ‘Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.’

‘I Have a Dream’: analysis

Although Martin Luther King’s speech has become known by the repeated four-word phrase ‘I Have a Dream’, which emphasises the personal nature of his vision, his speech is actually about a collective dream for a better and more equal America which is not only shared by many Black Americans but by anyone who identifies with their fight against racial injustice, segregation, and discrimination.

Nevertheless, in working from ‘I have a dream’ to a different four-word phrase, ‘this is our hope’. The shift is natural and yet it is a rhetorical masterstroke, since the vision of a better nation which King has set out as a very personal, sincere dream is thus telescoped into a universal and collective struggle for freedom.

What’s more, in moving from ‘dream’ to a different noun, ‘hope’, King suggests that what might be dismissed as an idealistic ambition is actually something that is both possible and achievable. No sooner has the dream gathered momentum than it becomes a more concrete ‘hope’.

In his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, King was doing more than alluding to Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation one hundred years earlier. The opening words to his speech, ‘Five score years ago’, allude to a specific speech Lincoln himself had made a century before: the Gettysburg Address .

In that speech, delivered at the Soldiers’ National Cemetery (now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in November 1863, Lincoln had urged his listeners to continue in the fight for freedom, envisioning the day when all Americans – including Black slaves – would be free. His speech famously begins with the words: ‘Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.’

‘Four score and seven years’ is eighty-seven years, which takes us back from 1863 to 1776, the year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. So, Martin Luther King’s allusion to the words of Lincoln’s historic speech do two things: they call back to Lincoln’s speech but also, by extension, to the founding of the United States almost two centuries before. Although Lincoln and the American Civil War represented progress in the cause to make all Americans free regardless of their ethnicity, King makes it clear in ‘I Have a Dream’ that there is still some way to go.

In the last analysis, King’s speech is a rhetorically clever and emotionally powerful call to use non-violent protest to oppose racial injustice, segregation, and discrimination, but also to ensure that all Americans are lifted out of poverty and degradation.

But most of all, King emphasises the collective endeavour that is necessary to bring about the world he wants his children to live in: the togetherness, the linking of hands, which is essential to make the dream a reality.

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I Have a Dream

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I Have a Dream , speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. , that was delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington . A call for equality and freedom , it became one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement and one of the most iconic speeches in American history.

Some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. , for the March on Washington. The one-day event both protested racial discrimination and encouraged the passage of civil rights legislation; at the time, the Civil Rights Act was being discussed in Congress. The march featured various speeches as well as musical performances before King, a celebrated orator, appeared as the final official speaker; A. Philip Randolph and Benjamin Mays ended the proceedings with a pledge and a benediction , respectively.

Early in his prepared speech, King referenced Abraham Lincoln ’s Gettysburg Address with “Five score years ago….” He then spoke about the Emancipation Proclamation , which “end[ed] the long night of their [slaves’] captivity.” However, he continued by noting that African Americans were still “not free” and that they were “crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.”

According to various observers, however, as King neared the end, the address was failing to achieve the resonance of his more noteworthy speeches. As activist John Lewis noted, King himself could “sense that he was falling short.” Perhaps that compelled singer Mahalia Jackson to call out, imploring him to tell the crowd about “the dream.” It was a theme he had used at earlier events but had been advised not to use in Washington, with one aide calling it “trite.” At Jackson’s urging, however, King abandoned his prepared text and launched into a discussion of his dreams, adopting “the stance of a Baptist preacher.”

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.…I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that…one day right there in Alabama, little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

King’s improvisations seemed to strike a chord with the crowd, many of whom called out words of encouragement. The speech built to its emotional conclusion , which was borrowed from a Black spiritual : “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.” Largely based on King’s extemporizations, the speech was widely considered the greatest of the 20th century, noted for its power and resonance. With its universal appeal, “I have a dream” became an enduring phrase both in the United States and elsewhere. In addition, many believed the speech helped secure passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

I Have a Dream Speech Transcript – Martin Luther King Jr.

One of the most iconic and famous speeches of all time, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Read the full transcript of this classic speech.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 00:59 ) I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 01:32 ) Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity, but 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. 100 years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 100 years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. 100 years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 03:10 ) So we’ve come here today to dramatize the shameful condition. In a sense, we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which ever American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 04:25 ) But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom, and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 06:16 ) It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summit of the Negroes legitimate discontent will not pass until that is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 06:53 ) There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But that is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plain of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy, which has engulfed the Negro community, must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize their destiny is tied up in our destiny.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 08:54 ) They have come realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone, and as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. They are those who asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negroes basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating, For Whites Only. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote, and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 10:48 ) I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that honor and suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friend, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created.”

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 12:54 ) I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of that character. I have a dream today.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 13:50 ) I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 14:27 ) I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is a faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 15:29 ) This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, My country, Tis of thee, Sweet land of Liberty, Of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrim’s pride, From every mountainside, Let freedom ring. If America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

Martin Luther King Jr.: ( 15:58 ) So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring, and when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholic, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

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“I Have A Dream”: Annotated

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic speech, annotated with relevant scholarship on the literary, political, and religious roots of his words.

For this month’s Annotations, we’ve taken Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech, and provided scholarly analysis of its groundings and inspirations—the speech’s religious, political, historical and cultural underpinnings are wide-ranging and have been read as jeremiad, call to action, and literature. While the speech itself has been used (and sometimes misused) to call for a “color-blind” country, its power is only increased by knowing its rhetorical and intellectual antecedents.      

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation . This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now . This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred .

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream .

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted , every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood . With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

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This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

For dynamic annotations of this speech and other iconic works, see The Understanding Series from JSTOR Labs .

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Freedom's Ring "I Have a Dream" Speech

Main navigation.

Freedom's Ring  is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, annotated. Here you can compare the written and spoken speech, explore multimedia images, listen to movement activists and uncover historical context.

Fifty years ago, in the concluding address of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, King demanded the riches of freedom and the security of justice. Today his language of love, nonviolent direct action and redemptive suffering, resonates globally in the millions who stand up for freedom and elevate democracy to its ideals. How do the echoes of King's Dream live within you?

Freedom's Ring serves as an innovative and thought-provoking resource for teachers, students, and the larger community. Evan Bissell, a Bay Area artist and educator, and webdesigner Erik Loyer worked with King Institute's Dr. Andrea McEvoy Spero,  Dr. Clayborne Carson and Regina Covington to create an engaging experience that documents one of the most famous events in Civil Rights history. Freedom's Ring compliments the King Legacy Series by Beacon Press and the corresponding curriculum guide. 

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Critic’s Notebook

The Lasting Power of Dr. King’s Dream Speech

By Michiko Kakutani

• Aug. 27, 2013

It was late in the day and hot, and after a long march and an afternoon of speeches about federal legislation, unemployment and racial and social justice, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. finally stepped to the lectern, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, to address the crowd of 250,000 gathered on the National Mall.

He began slowly, with magisterial gravity, talking about what it was to be black in America in 1963 and the “shameful condition” of race relations a hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Unlike many of the day’s previous speakers, he did not talk about particular bills before Congress or the marchers’ demands. Instead, he situated the civil rights movement within the broader landscape of history — time past, present and future — and within the timeless vistas of Scripture.

Dr. King was about halfway through his prepared speech when Mahalia Jackson — who earlier that day had delivered a stirring rendition of the spiritual “I Been ’Buked and I Been Scorned” — shouted out to him from the speakers’ stand: “Tell ’em about the ‘Dream,’ Martin, tell ’em about the ‘Dream’!” She was referring to a riff he had delivered on earlier occasions, and Dr. King pushed the text of his remarks to the side and began an extraordinary improvisation on the dream theme that would become one of the most recognizable refrains in the world.

With his improvised riff, Dr. King took a leap into history, jumping from prose to poetry, from the podium to the pulpit. His voice arced into an emotional crescendo as he turned from a sobering assessment of current social injustices to a radiant vision of hope — of what America could be. “I have a dream,” he declared, “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!”

Many in the crowd that afternoon, 50 years ago on Wednesday, had taken buses and trains from around the country. Many wore hats and their Sunday best — “People then,” the civil rights leader John Lewis would recall, “when they went out for a protest, they dressed up” — and the Red Cross was passing out ice cubes to help alleviate the sweltering August heat. But if people were tired after a long day, they were absolutely electrified by Dr. King. There was reverent silence when he began speaking, and when he started to talk about his dream, they called out, “Amen,” and, “Preach, Dr. King, preach,” offering, in the words of his adviser Clarence B. Jones, “every version of the encouragements you would hear in a Baptist church multiplied by tens of thousands.”

You could feel “the passion of the people flowing up to him,” James Baldwin, a skeptic of that day’s March on Washington, later wrote, and in that moment, “it almost seemed that we stood on a height, and could see our inheritance; perhaps we could make the kingdom real.”

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History Resources

Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech

By tim bailey, unit overview.

This unit is part of the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Teaching Literacy through History resources, designed to align to the Common Core State Standards. These units were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical significance. Through a step-by-step process, students will acquire the skills to analyze and assess primary source material.

Over the course of five lessons, students will read, analyze, and gain a clear understanding of "I Have a Dream," a speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr., at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The first four lessons require students to read excerpts from the speech "like a detective." Through summary organizers, practice, and discussion, they will master the technique of identifying key words, creating summaries of document sections and, as an assessment in the final lesson, writing an argumentative essay.

Unit Objectives

Students will be able to

• Read and demonstrate understanding of a complex document
• Identify the main ideas and synthesize and draw logical inferences from the document
• Summarize the author’s words and restate the author’s meaning in their own words
• Write an argumentative essay using evidence from the document to support their ideas

Number of Class Periods

The unit is structured for 5 class sessions, but Lessons 1 and 2 can be combined and Lessons 3 and 4 can be combined. In addition, the essay could be assigned as a take-home exercise.

Grade Level(s)

Common core state standards.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social studies.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.5: Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Historical Background

On August 28, 1963, approximately a quarter million people converged on Washington, DC. They came from all over the United States to demand civil and economic rights for African Americans. Many traveled for days—and at great personal risk—to participate. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was one of the largest political rallies in history. There were fears of violence, but the huge crowd remained peaceful as they marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.

The last speech of the day was given by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King drew on history—including the Declaration of Independence’s promise of equality and Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation—to highlight how far African Americans were from reaching the American ideal. He urged his audience to demand equal opportunities and access to jobs and facilities and housing and voting. But what transformed the speech into one of the most memorable in American history for the millions of Americans watching and listening in Washington, on radio and on television, was the recurring phrase "I have a dream," repeated eight times with increasing urgency—a dream of what could happen in the nation as well as a more intimate dream of what his own children could achieve when freedom rang everywhere in the United States.

Students will read the first section of the "I Have a Dream" speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. In a step-by-step process they will identify key words employed by King and then summarize the text to demonstrate that they understand what King was saying.

• Understand what was explicitly stated in the speech
• Draw logical inferences
• Summarize a portion of the speech using the author’s words and then their own words
• Teacher Resource:  "I Have a Dream" Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (excerpts) . Source: Reprinted by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., c/o Writers House as the proprietor New York, NY. Copyright: © 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. © renewed 1991 Coretta Scott King.
• Summary Organizer #1
• Overhead projector, Elmo projector, or similar device

Note: The first lesson is done as a whole-class exercise.

• Tell the students that they will be exploring what Martin Luther King, Jr., said in the "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Resist the temptation to provide more information as you want the students to develop ideas based solely on King’s words.
• Read aloud the excerpts from the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., and ask the students to read it silently to themselves. It is important for the students to experience a text as the writer meant it to be experienced—in this case as a speech before a large crowd.
• Tell the students that they will be analyzing the first selection from the document today and learning how to do in-depth analysis for themselves. The whole class will be going through this process together for the first section of the document.
• Pass out Summary Organizer #1, which includes the first section of the speech. Display the organizer in a format large enough for the whole class to see. Make certain students understand that the original text has been edited for this lesson. Explain the purpose and use of ellipses.
• "Share read" the text with the students. This is done by having the students follow along silently while you begin to read aloud, modeling prosody, inflection, and punctuation. Then ask the class to join in with the reading after a few sentences while you continue to read aloud, still serving as the model for the class. This technique will support struggling readers as well as English language learners (ELL).
• Explain that the objective is to select "Key Words" from the first section and then use those words to create a brief summary of the text that gets at the gist of what Dr. King was saying.
• Guidelines for Selecting Key Words: Key Words are very important contributors to understanding the text. They are usually nouns or verbs. Don’t pick "connector" words ( are , is , the , and , so , etc.). The number of Key Words depends on the length of the original selection. This selection is 249 words long so you can pick up to ten Key Words. The students must know what their Key Words mean, so there will be opportunities to teach students how to use context clues, word analysis, and dictionary skills to discover word meanings.
• Ask the students to select up to ten words from the text that they believe are Key Words and write them down on their organizers.
• Survey the class to find out what the most popular choices were. After some discussion and with your guidance, the class should decide on ten Key Words. For example, let’s say that the class decides on the following words: freedom , Emancipation Proclamation (two words that together make up a single idea can be selected if it makes sense in context), hope , Negro , segregation , discrimination , shameful , Declaration of Independence , promise , and unalienable rights . Now, no matter which words the students had previously selected, have them write the words agreed upon by the class or chosen by you into the Key Word list.
• Explain that the class will use these Key Words to write a brief summary (one or two sentences) that demonstrates an understanding of what King was saying. This exercise should be a whole-class discussion-and-negotiation process. For example, "The Emancipation Proclamation brought hope, but segregation and discrimination are still part of Negro life. That is shameful because the Declaration of Independence promised all people unalienable rights." You might find that the class doesn’t need some of the Key Words, which will make the summary even more streamlined. This is part of the negotiation process. The final sentence(s) should be copied into the organizer.
• Now guide the students in putting the summary sentence(s) into their own words. Again, this is a class negotiation process. For example "African Americans were promised the same rights as everyone else, but that hasn’t happened yet."
• Wrap up: Discuss vocabulary that the students found confusing or difficult. You could have students use the back of their organizer or a separate vocabulary form to make a note of these words and their meaning.

Students will read the second section of the "I Have a Dream" speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. In a step-by-step process they will identify key words employed by King and then summarize the text to demonstrate that they understand what King was saying.

• Summary Organizer #2

Note: For this lesson, the students will be working with partners and in small groups.

• Review what the class did in the previous lesson and what they decided was the gist of the first selection from King’s speech.
• Distribute Summary Organizer #2 and display a copy in a format large enough for the whole class to see. Tell the students that they will work on the second section of the document with partners and in small groups.
• Share read the second selection with the students as described in Lesson 1.
• Review the process of selecting Key Words, writing a summary of the text using those words, and then restating the summary in their own words to show their understanding of King’s words.
• Pair the students up and have them work together to select the best Key Words. This passage is 258 words, so they can choose up to ten words.
• Now put two pairs of students together. These four students will negotiate with each other to come up with their final ten Key Words. Be strategic in how you make your groups in order to ensure the most participation by all group members.
• Once the groups have selected their Key Words, each group will use those words to create a brief summary (one or two sentences) of what Martin Luther King was saying. During this process, try to make sure that everyone is contributing. It is very easy for one student to take control and for the other students to let them do so. All of the students should write their group’s negotiated sentence into their organizers.
• Ask groups to share out the summary sentences that they have created. This should start a teacher-led discussion that points out the qualities of the various responses. How successful were the groups at getting at King’s main idea, and were they careful to use the Key Words in doing so?
• Now direct the groups to restate their summary sentences in their own words. Again, this is a group negotiation process. After they have decided on a summary, it should be written into their organizers. Again, have the groups share out their responses and discuss the clarity and quality of the responses.
• Wrap up: Discuss vocabulary that the students found confusing or difficult. If you choose you could have students use the back of their organizer or separate vocabulary form to make a note of these words and their meaning.

Students will read the third section of the "I Have a Dream" speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. In a step-by-step process they will identify key words employed by King and then summarize the text to demonstrate that they understand what King was saying.

• Summary Organizer #3

Note: For this lesson students will work individually unless you decide they still need the support of a group.

• Review what the class did in the previous two lessons and what they decided was the gist of the first two selections.
• Distribute Summary Organizer #3 with the third selection from King’s speech. You may decide to share read the third selection with the students as in prior lessons or have them read it silently to themselves.
• Review the process of selecting Key Words, writing a summary using the key words, and then restating the summary in the students’ own words to demonstrate their understanding of King’s words. This text is 237 words, so the students can pick up to ten words.
• After the students have worked through the three steps, have them share out their summaries in their own words and guide a class discussion of the meaning of the text.
• Wrap up: Discuss vocabulary that the students found confusing or difficult. If you choose you could have students use the back of their organizer or a separate vocabulary form to make a note of these words and their meaning.

Students will read the fourth section of the "I Have a Dream" speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. In a step-by-step process they will identify key words employed by King and then summarize the text to demonstrate that they understand what King was saying.

• Summary Organizer #4

Note: Students will continue to work independently in this lesson.

• Review what the class did in the previous lessons and what they decided was the gist of the first three selections.
• Distribute Summary Organizer #4 with the fourth selection from King’s speech. You may decide to share read the text with the students as in prior lessons or have them read it silently to themselves.
• Review the process of selecting Key Words, writing a summary using the key words, and then restating the summary in the students’ own words to demonstrate their understanding of King’s words. There are 224 words in this selection, so the students can select eight or nine key words.
• After the students have worked through the three steps, have them share out their summaries in their own words and guide a class discussion of the meaning of King’s words.

The class will first review the meaning of each section of Martin Luther King’s "I Have a Dream" speech. Second, the students will look closely at how Dr. King constructed his speech, particularly his choice of words. Finally, they will write about Dr. King’s speech in a short argumentative essay in which they support their statements with evidence taken directly from Martin Luther King’s own words.

• Synthesize the work of the prior four days
• Demonstrate an understanding of the meaning of the primary source
• Analyze the writing craft (speech construction, rhetorical style)
• Explain and defend whether they believe the craft and style makes the speech more effective
• Write an argumentative essay based on evidence in the text 
• Summary Organizers #1–4 from previous lessons
• The students should have the four Summary Organizers they completed in the previous lessons.
• Review the work from the previous lessons by asking the students to provide a summary in their own words of each of the four text selections. This is done as a class discussion. Write these short negotiated sentences on the overhead or similar device so the whole class can see them. These summaries should reinforce the students’ understanding of the meaning of King’s speech.
• Discuss with the students Dr. King’s rhetorical style as well as how the construction of the speech affects its meaning. How does repeating certain phrases strengthen his point or focus his arguments? How does the construction help guide the audience?
• If the students do not have experience writing an argumentative essay, proceed with a short lesson on essay writing. Otherwise, have them write a short essay in response to one of the prompts in class or as an out-of-class assignment. Remind the students that they must back up any arguments they make with evidence taken directly from the text of King’s "I Have a Dream" speech. The first prompt is designed to be the easiest.
• What is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream, and according to Dr. King how could it become a reality?
• In his speech Dr. King says that "we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check." What does he mean by this and what, as he sees it, will be the result of this action?
• In his speech, how does Dr. King respond to the question, "When will you be satisfied?" Explain both the reason for this question put to civil rights activists and Dr. King’s response.

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Ethos, Pathos, Logos in I Have a Dream

In this activity, activity overview, template and class instructions, more storyboard that activities.

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Like this lesson plan? copy it now!

The ELA Common Core Standards, in high school, require students to improve their formal writing abilities by producing well-thought-out essays and arguments that are appropriately structured. They also need students to employ effective argumentative writing methods for them to defend a position or perspective.

The ability to deconstruct and validate, or debunk, opposing viewpoints is essential for strong persuasive writing. This necessitates a basic understanding of rhetoric. Teaching the Aristotelian concepts of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos as ways to enhance students' comprehension of good arguments is a fantastic approach to cultivating their understanding of effective arguments. Students may then assess the efficacy of these methods in a piece of writing, speech, or letter.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" is one of the most famous quoted speeches in history. In it, King uses rhetoric to appeal to his audience's emotions, values, and logic. By doing so, he is able to make a powerful argument for civil rights. So with that, it is worth exploring the ethos (expertise), pathos (emotional appeal), and logos (logic) of the speech to break it down into some core elements.

The speech was delivered on August 28th, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. during the march on Washington for jobs and freedom. Centering around the dreams that King had, having grown up during segregated times of black and white folk. The speech text included repetition of the line "I Have a Dream..." such as:

“I Have a Dream that one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

“I Have a Dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

To truly understand the impact of this speech, we first need to understand the meanings behind ethos (expertise), pathos (emotional appeal), and logos (logic).

Ethos is the credibility of the speaker. To establish ethos, a speaker must be seen as an expert in the topic at hand or be someone who is trusted by the audience. King was both an expert on civil rights and someone who was highly respected by the African American community. This gave his speech a great deal of authority and made it more persuasive.

Examples of Ethos in “I Have a Dream” Speech

Pathos is the use of emotions to persuade an audience. King does an excellent job of using pathos to appeal to his audience's emotions. For example, he talks about the dreams that he has for his children and how he wants them to be judged by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin. This is a powerful message that speaks to people's hearts and motivates them to act.

Examples of Pathos in “I Have a Dream” Speech

“Five score years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree is a great beacon light of hope it millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But 100 years later the Negro still is not free.”

Logos is the use of logic and reason to persuade an audience. King uses logos throughout his speech by providing evidence and reasoning for why civil rights are important. He also uses analogy and metaphor to help illustrate his points. For instance, he compares Blacks to "a nation of sheep" being led astray by a "jackass" (the White establishment). This comparison helps to paint a picture in the minds of his listeners and makes his argument more understandable.

Examples of Logos in “I Have a Dream” Speech

“The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.”

You can use the I Have a Dream writing template during class to get students to think about the different elements of King's speech from a literary perspective . The template has sections for all three components discussed; Ethos, Pathos & Logos. This template may also be used as a guide for students to write their own speeches.

Each section assists students in the I Have a Dream speech rhetorical analysis by allowing them to type in a quote that belongs to each section of the template. Students can then use these I Have a Dream ethos, pathos, and logos sections to illustrate each example quote with characters, scenes, and emotions.

Take logos for example. The logos of the speech are the reasoning and examples that Dr. King uses to back up his argument. These logos quotes can be from famous cases, statistics, or even history. Here are some examples of logos in I Have a Dream speech:

“America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds'.”

“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is a victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.”

Martin Luther King uses ethos in his speech by discussing his credentials as a Baptist minister and civil rights leader. He also talks about his experience with discrimination and how he has seen the effects of segregation firsthand. By sharing his personal experiences, he establishes himself as a credible source on the topic of civil rights.

In addition to discussing his own experiences, King also cites other sources to support his argument. He talks about the Founding Fathers and how they “were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.” He as well references the Emancipation Proclamation and how it was a “great beacon light of hope” for African Americans.

Martin Luther King uses pathos in his speech by sharing the experiences of African Americans who have faced discrimination and segregation. He talks about how African Americans have been “seared in the flames of withering injustice” and how they are still not free even 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. By sharing these powerful stories, he elicits an emotional response from his audience and strengthens his argument for civil rights.

King also uses analogy and metaphor to help illustrate his points. For instance, his comparison of African Americans to “a nation of sheep” and the white establishment to “jackass”. This comparison helps to paint a vivid picture of the situation and makes his argument more relatable to his audience.

Martin Luther King uses logos in his speech by citing statistics and historical events to support his argument. He talks about how African Americans have been discriminated against in housing, education, and employment. He also references the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to show how all men are supposed to be treated equally. By using these facts and figures, he demonstrates that segregation is unjust and must be abolished.

King also uses persuasive language throughout his speech. For example, he talks about how African Americans “have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check” that was written by the Founding Fathers. This analogy helps his audience understand that civil rights are not just a Black issue, but an American issue. It is something that everyone should be concerned about and working to fix.

Overall the activity resource teaches the children about ethos, pathos, and logos. It is a good way to introduce the topic and allow the children to explore it in more depth.

When looking at how Martin Luther King uses rhetoric, we can see that he employs all three of Aristotle's modes of persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos. He establishes his credibility as a leader early on in the speech, by talking about his experience with discrimination and sharing his credentials as a Baptist minister. Throughout the speech, he uses emotional language to connect with his audience and paint a picture of the struggles that African Americans face. He also uses logic and reasoning to back up his argument, by citing statistics and historical events.

The way he uses the three cornerstones of making a speech impactful will teach the children the importance of rhetoric in public speaking. They can then use literary devices in the “I Have a Dream” speech, get creative, and start to build up their own scenes, with characters to bring to life the quotes from each section that they have chosen. This will allow them to demonstrate to the high school ELA Common Core Standards that your teaching methods and school are providing the children with the learning resources to develop the ability to find, read, and comprehend complex informational texts.

(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)

Student Instructions

Create a storyboard that shows examples of ethos, pathos, and logos from the text.

• Identify one example of each rhetorical strategy: ethos, pathos, and logos.
• Type the example into the description box under the cell.
• Illustrate the example using any combination of scenes, characters, and items.

Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 9-12

Difficulty Level 2 (Reinforcing / Developing)

Type of Assignment Individual

Type of Activity: The Rhetorical Triangle: Ethos, Pathos, Logos

(You can also create your own on Quick Rubric .)

How to Use Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Creative Writing Assignments

Introducing ethos, pathos, and logos.

Start the lesson by explaining ethos, pathos, and logos. These are persuasive techniques used to convince an audience and are crucial in effective communication and writing. Use simple, relatable examples to describe each: ethos as establishing credibility or trust, pathos as appealing to emotions, and logos as using logic or reason. Reference "I Have a Dream" to show how Martin Luther King Jr. effectively used these techniques.

Analyzing Examples from "I Have a Dream"

After the introduction, move on to analyzing specific parts of "I Have a Dream" where King employs ethos, pathos, and logos. Break down the speech into sections and work with students to identify which technique is being used in each section. Discuss how each technique serves the overall purpose of the speech and enhances its persuasive power. This exercise not only reinforces their understanding of the concepts but also illustrates how these techniques can be effectively combined.

Writing Exercise Using Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

Now that students have a solid understanding of ethos, pathos, and logos, and have seen them in action, challenge them to write their own short essays, speeches, or letters employing these techniques. Provide a template or outline to help them structure their writing. Encourage them to think about an issue or topic they are passionate about, as this will naturally lend itself to the persuasive style of writing.

Peer Review and Reflective Discussion

Conclude the lesson with a peer review session. Students exchange their writings with each other for review. Encourage them to provide feedback specifically on the use and effectiveness of ethos, pathos, and logos in the piece. Finally, bring the class together for a reflective discussion. Ask students to share their experiences of writing with these techniques and how their perspective on persuasive writing has changed.

Frequently Asked Questions about Ethos, Pathos, Logos in "I Have a Dream"

What are ethos, pathos, and logos.

Ethos is a style of writing that appeals to the reader’s authority, thus building trust. Pathos appeals to the emotions of the reader, and logos appeals to the reader’s ability to reason. All of these are ways of writing that make the reader trust, believe, and feel for what the author is saying.

What is Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech about?

Dr. King’s speech had two main goals: to end racism, and to call attention to equal civil and economic rights for all people.

When did Martin Luther King deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech?

Dr. King delivered this famous speech on August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington in Washington, D.C.

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Black History Month 2024

5 mlk speeches you should know. spoiler: 'i have a dream' isn't on the list.

Scott Neuman

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy (left) shakes hands with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Ala., on March 22, 1956, as a big crowd of supporters cheers for King, who had just been found guilty of leading the Montgomery bus boycott. Gene Herrick/AP hide caption

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy (left) shakes hands with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Ala., on March 22, 1956, as a big crowd of supporters cheers for King, who had just been found guilty of leading the Montgomery bus boycott.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s " I Have a Dream " speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, is so famous that it often eclipses his other speeches.

King's greatest contribution to the Civil Rights Movement was his oratory, says Jason Miller, an English professor at North Carolina State University who has written extensively on King's speeches.

Black History Month 2024 has begun. Here's this year's theme and other things to know

"King's first biographer was a dear friend of Dr. King's, L.D. Reddick ," Miller says. Reddick once suggested to King that maybe more marching and less speaking was needed to push the cause of civil rights forward. According to Miller, King is said to have responded, "My dear man, you never deny an artist his medium."

Miller says that in his research, he found numerous examples of King reworking and recycling old speeches. "He would rewrite them ... just to change phrasings and rhythms. And so he prepared a great deal, often 19 lines per page on a yellow legal sheet."

Often, King would write notes to himself in the margins: "what tenor and tone to deliver," Miller says.

That phrasing and an understanding of cadence were all important to the success of these speeches, according to Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, director of graduate studies at the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University.

King's training in the pulpit gave him a strong insight into what moves an audience, she says. "Preachers are performers. They know when to pause. How long to pause. And with what effect. And he certainly was a great user of dramatic pauses."

Here are four of King's speeches that sometimes get overlooked, plus the one he delivered the day before his 1968 assassination. Collectively, they represent historical signposts on the road to civil rights.

" Give Us the Ballot " (May 17, 1957 — Washington, D.C.)

King spoke at the Lincoln Memorial three years to the day after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education , which struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine that had allowed segregation in public schools.

But Jim Crow persisted throughout much of the South. The yearlong Montgomery bus boycott , sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks, had ended only months before King's speech. And the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , which sought to end disenfranchisement of Black voters, was still eight years away.

"It's a very important speech because he's talking about the importance of voting and he's responding to some of the Southern resistance to the Brown decision," says Vicki Crawford, director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Collection at Morehouse College, King's alma mater .

U.S. deputy marshals escort 6-year-old Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in November 1960. The first-grader was the only Black child enrolled in the school, where parents of white students were boycotting the court-ordered integration law and were taking their children out of school. AP hide caption

U.S. deputy marshals escort 6-year-old Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in November 1960. The first-grader was the only Black child enrolled in the school, where parents of white students were boycotting the court-ordered integration law and were taking their children out of school.

The speech calls out both major political parties for betraying "the cause of justice" and failing to do enough to ensure civil rights for Blacks. He accuses Democrats of "capitulating to the prejudices and undemocratic practices of the Southern Dixiecrats," referring to the party's pro-segregation wing. The Republicans, King said, had instead capitulated "to the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing, reactionary Northerners."

King speaks at a mass demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on May 17, 1957, as civil rights leaders called on the U.S. government to put more teeth into the Supreme Court's desegregation decisions. Charles Gorry/AP hide caption

King speaks at a mass demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on May 17, 1957, as civil rights leaders called on the U.S. government to put more teeth into the Supreme Court's desegregation decisions.

He also indicts Northern liberals who are "so bent on seeing all sides" that they are "neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm" in their commitment to civil rights.

"King [was] calling on both parties to take a look at themselves," Crawford says.

With the movement gaining steam, King used his speech to take stock of where things stood and what must be done next, Calloway-Thomas says. "He is revisiting the status of African American people."

" Our God Is Marching On! " (March 25, 1965 — Montgomery, Ala.)

The speech was delivered after the last of three Selma-Montgomery marches to call for voting rights. Protesters were beaten by Alabama law enforcement officials at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7 in what came to be known as Bloody Sunday . Among the nearly 60 wounded that day by club-wielding police was John Lewis, the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), who suffered a fractured skull. (Lewis later served 17 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.) A second attempt to reach Montgomery a few days later was again turned back at the bridge. In a third try, marchers finally reached the steps of the Alabama State Capitol on March 25.

Rep. John Lewis, A Force In The Civil Rights Movement, Dead At 80

"Finally the group of protesters gets all the way to the Capitol, and King delivers a speech to what we think is about 25,000 people," Miller says. The speech is also often referred to as the "How Long? Not Long" speech because of that powerful refrain, Miller says.

Jonathan Eig, author of the biography King: A Life , published last year, says he thinks about three-fourths of the speech was written out. "Then [King] goes off script and gives a sermon."

That's when he answers the question "How long?" for his audience. How long will it be until Black people have the same rights as white people? "Not long, because no lie can live forever," King tells his exuberant listeners.

"That's the part that really echoes. No question," Eig says. "And I think that's when he knew he was at his best. He knew that he could bring the crowd to its feet and inspire them."

Also notable is a famous anecdote that King shared in his speech, one that appeared earlier in his 1963 " Letter from a Birmingham Jail " addressed to his "fellow clergymen." It relates the words of Sister Pollard, a 70-year-old Black woman who had walked everywhere, refusing to ride the Montgomery buses during the 1955-1956 boycott.

"One day, she was asked while walking if she didn't want to ride," King said, speaking to the crowd that had just successfully marched from Selma to Montgomery. "And when she answered, 'No,' the person said, 'Well, aren't you tired?' And with her ungrammatical profundity, she said, 'My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.'"

"And in a real sense this afternoon, we can say that our feet are tired but our souls are rested," he said.

The story of Sister Pollard would be used again in the coming years.

But the speech may be best remembered today for another line, where King said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

In fact, King was using the words of a 19th-century Unitarian minister, Theodore Parker . Parker was an abolitionist who secretly funded John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, often seen as an opening salvo of the Civil War. In a sermon given seven years before the raid, Parker used the line that King would pick up more than a century later.

"Dr. King absorbed all kinds of material, heard from others, used it on his own. But this is what we call appropriation or transformation when the old seems new," Miller says.

" Beyond Vietnam " (April 4, 1967 — New York City)

King had already begun speaking out about the war in Vietnam, but this speech was his most forceful statement on the conflict to date. Black soldiers were dying in disproportionate numbers . King noted the irony that in Vietnam, "Negro and white boys" were killing and dying alongside each other "for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools."

"So we watch them, in brutal solidarity, burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago," he said. "I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor."

An infantry soldier runs across a burned-out clearing in Vietnam on Jan. 4, 1967. Horst Faas/AP hide caption

An infantry soldier runs across a burned-out clearing in Vietnam on Jan. 4, 1967.

SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael , a major civil rights figure, had come out against the war and encouraged King to join him. But some in King's own inner circle had cautioned him against speaking about Vietnam.

Code Switch

Stokely carmichael, a philosopher behind the black power movement.

Although powerful and timely, the speech drew a harsh and immediate reaction from a nation that had only just begun to reckon with the rising casualties and economic toll of the war. Both The Washington Post and The New York Times published editorials criticizing it. The Post said King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people" and the Times said he had "dampened his prospects for becoming the Negro leader who might be able to get the nation 'moving again' on civil rights."

King knew he would take heat for the speech, especially from the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, with whom he'd worked to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and, a year later, the Voting Rights Act, through Congress. With the presidential election just 19 months away, continued support of Johnson's Vietnam policy was crucial to his reelection. Nearly 10 months after the speech, however, the Tet Offensive launched by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army would help turn U.S. public opinion against the war and lead Johnson to not seek another term.

But in April 1967, the reaction to the speech was "far worse than King or his advisers imagined," says Miller, of North Carolina State University. Johnson "excommunicated" the civil rights leader, he says, adding that even leaders of the NAACP expressed disappointment that King had focused attention on the war.

"His immediate response was that he was crushed," Miller says. "There are a number of people who have documented that he literally broke down in tears when he realized the kind of backlash towards it."

He was criticized from both sides of the political aisle. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., a staunch conservative who made a failed run for the presidency in 1964, said King's speech "could border a bit on treason."

"King himself said that he anguished over doing the speech," says Indiana University's Calloway-Thomas.

" The Three Evils of Society " (Aug. 31, 1967 — Chicago)

The three evils King outlines in this speech are poverty, racism and militarism . Referring to Johnson's Great Society program to help lift rural Americans out of poverty, King said that it had been "shipwrecked off the coast of Asia, on the dreadful peninsula of Vietnam" and that meanwhile, "the poor, Black and white are still perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."

Calloway-Thomas calls it "the most scathing critique of American society by King that I have ever read."

"We need, according to him, a radical redistribution of political and economic power," she says, "Is that implying reparations? Is that implying socialism?"

Calloway-Thomas hears in King's words an antecedent to the Black Lives Matter movement. "One sees in that speech some relationship between the rhetoric of Dr. King at that moment and the rhetoric of Black Lives Matter at this moment," she says.

It was also one of the many instances where King quoted poet Langston Hughes, with whom he had become friends. "What happens to a dream deferred? It leads to bewildering frustration and corroding bitterness," King said in a nod to Hughes' most famous poem, " Harlem ."

King and Hughes traveled together to Nigeria in 1960, Miller notes, calling the poet an often unrecognized but nonetheless "central figure" in the early Civil Rights Movement. "They exchanged letters. Dr. King told [Hughes] how much he used his poetry. Dr. King used seven poems by Langston Hughes in his sermons and speeches from 1956 to 1958."

" I've Been to the Mountaintop! " (April 3, 1968 — Memphis, Tenn.)

This is King's last speech, delivered a day before his assassination at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. He was in the city to lend his support and his voice to the city's striking sanitation workers .

"He wasn't expecting to give a speech that night," according to Clayborne Carson, Martin Luther King, Jr. centennial professor emeritus at Stanford University. "He was hoping to get out of it. He was not feeling well."

"They call him and say, 'The people here want to hear you. They don't want to hear us.' And plus, the place was packed that night" despite a heavy downpour, Carson says. "I think he recognized that people really wanted to hear him. And despite the state of his health, he decided to go."

Martin Luther King Jr. makes his last public appearance, at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968. The following day, King was assassinated on his motel balcony. Charles Kelly/AP hide caption

Martin Luther King Jr. makes his last public appearance, at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968. The following day, King was assassinated on his motel balcony.

The haunting words, in which King says, "I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you" have led many people to think he was prophesying his own death the following day at the hands of assassin James Earl Ray .

"The speech really does feel a bit like his own eulogy," says Eig. "He's talking about earthly salvation and heavenly salvation. And, in the end, boldly equating himself with Moses, who doesn't live to see the Promised Land."

The speech is largely, if not entirely, extemporaneous. And by the end, King was exhausted, says Carson. "It's pretty clear when you watch the film that he's not in the best shape."

"He barely makes it to the end," he says.

"But he relied on his audience to bring him along," Carson says. "I think it's one of those speeches where the crowd is inspiring him and he's inspiring them. That's what makes it work."

It's a great speech, made greater still because it was his last, says Calloway-Thomas.

"You have this wonderful man who epitomized the social and political situation in the United States in the 20th century," she says. "There he is, dying so tragically and dreadfully. It has a lot of pity and pathos buried inside it."

• Black History
• Civil Rights Movement
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Black History Month

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This Happened — August 28: Martin Luther King's Iconic Speech

Updated July 28, 2024 at 11:00 a.m.

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on this day in 1963.

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Who was Martin Luther King Jr.?

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister, activist, and leader in the civil rights movement. He led peaceful protests and advocated for nonviolent resistance to combat racial segregation and discrimination. He drew inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence and believed in peaceful protests, civil disobedience, and the power of love to combat injustice.

What is Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech?

Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" is one of his most famous speeches. He delivered it during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. The speech called for an end to racism and envisioned a future of racial harmony and equality in America.

How is Martin Luther King Jr. remembered today?

Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered as a visionary leader and an icon of the civil rights movement. His contributions to racial equality, his commitment to nonviolence, and his speeches continue to inspire and guide people in the ongoing pursuit of justice and equality . His birthday, January 15, is celebrated as a national holiday in the United States and called Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

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Olympic Rings Permanently On The Eiffel Tower? How The Paris Mayor Lost The Plot

As good as the paris games have been to the french capital, does that mean we must forever fix the olympic rings on the eiffel tower it looks like mayor anne hidalgo may have drank her own kool-aid — or too much water from the seine..

What to do with the Eiffel Tower's ring bling?

PARIS — The splendor of the City of Lights, packed stadiums, air-tight security .... Parisians being nice to tourists?! Clearly, the Olympic Games have done something right for the city of Paris. From a lavish opening ceremony on the Seine to a general embodiment of the Paris est une fête spirit through the summer, with French people as enthralled by the events as the crowds of visitors. Even with the arrival of September, enthusiasm has not abated.

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Yet all good things must come to an end, and on September 8, the festivities will conclude with the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Still, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo apparently hasn't gotten the memo.

In an interview over the weekend, Hidalgo announced that the Olympic rings displayed on the Eiffel Tower were there to stay permanently, adding that she had the approval of the International Olympic Committee. She told French daily Ouest France that she “wants the spirit of celebration to remain.”

French people, she declared, “have fallen back in love with Paris — I like it, after 10 years of bashing and saying it would be hell."

Reading between the lines, it seems there are some old axes to grind for the Mayor, who was under fire for the Olympic planning and spending — and Hidalgo made a point of defending her decision to attempt to hold events in the long-polluted Seine by being among the first to go for a swim. It was, perhaps, a lot to swallow.

But can a political vendetta against her naysayers justify hanging a permanent reminder of her accomplishments on one of the world's most iconic structures? Mais non!

Hidalgo’s legacy

Sure, hosting the city’s first Olympic Games in a century was a challenge that came with its share of criticism. Students kicked out of their student housing, billions spent to clean the Seine, homeless people and refugees displaced ahead of the games, residents asked to work from home or leave the city: the months leading up to the festivities did not play in her favor.

Hidalgo's announcement has ruffled their feathers.

The mayor also intends to keep other iconic elements from the games to display across the city, as a permanent reminder of the event. The ethereal Olympic Vasque will keep on rising above the city until Sept. 8, and Hidalgo expressed her wish to keep the "extraordinary" object after the event, in a yet-to-be-determined location. The metal horse that seemingly ran across the river during the opening ceremony will also be kept displayed, as well as the ten golden statues of historical women, which are expected to be moved to the 18th arrondissement.

The reactions to Hidalgo’s decision are just starting to come in. Rachida Dati, current Minister for Culture and mayor of Paris’ 7th arrondissement, pointed out in a tweet that the Eiffel Tower is a protected landmark. "(It's) the work of an immense engineer and creator," Dati wrote, calling for "respect for its architectural gesture and its work"

"The hanging of the Olympic rings had exceptionally been exempted... but on a temporary basis."

One commentator on social media quipped : "LOL: Looks like someone doesn't want to take down their Christmas decorations"

A fragile landmark

The installation of the current 30-ton rings were the result of a number of engineering studies in order not to damage the tower, but were meant to stay temporarily. Hidalgo did mention that the permanent rings would be “bigger, but lighter” in order to be more durable.

The Eiffel tower’s state and conservation is an issue in itself. In February, a strike led to a six-day shutdown , as workers protested the management of the monument and accused the operating company SETE of putting profit above all else.

The world now knows there is something unique about la tour Eiffel

What would Gustave Eiffel say to the Paris mayor’s plans for his tower? According to the Association of Descendants of Gustave Eiffel (Adge), Monsieur Eiffel would not be too keen. The Adge published a statement speaking against the use of the tower to display “the symbol of an external organization, whatever its prestige”, adding that it is “not a billboard”.

It is worth noting, however, that the Eiffel Tower was once used a giant advertising billboard: From 1925 to 1934, French car manufacturer Citroën had its name in giant illuminated letters on three of the tower's sides — the tallest such sign in the world at the time — before being taken down due to Citroën’s financial difficulties.

The Eiffel Tower in 1925

Wikimedia Commons

It's our party

But that was a long, long time ago. The world now knows there is something unique about la tour Eiffel , the quintessential Parisian monument, the ultimate beacon in the City of Lights. Parisians may act indifferent to the tower most of the time, but Hidalgo's announcement has ruffled their feathers and reactions have flooded social media . It is their town after all, and such a big change and its most notable monument will not go unnoticed or uncriticized.

The mayor’s legacy does not need five colorful rings to be remembered. From an added 550 kilometers of bike lane, 155,000 trees planted throughout the cities to roads closed to turn the river banks into pedestrian areas, Hidalgo has transformed Paris in the past decade, and not without trouble.

If indeed Paris is a party, it is on its own terms.

But the Olympics are meant to be a temporary event (how about a compromise of removing the rings when The Los Angeles Games 2028 kicks off?) and whatever festive spirit they have brought to the capital will not remain just because the symbol still floats above the Champs de Mars.

If indeed Paris is a party, it is on its own terms and whenever Parisians decide so. At least the Olympic medalists get to take a part of the tower home with them . As for the tourists who come back after the Games are over? We'll try to be nice, but no promises.

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How Iran And Hezbollah Are Quietly Doing Everything To Avoid Escalation With Israel

For 2024, the cruise industry is on course for another record year of growth, israel mass protests, far-right surge in germany, spy whale, the far right's success in germany adds fuel to three fires burning in the world.

I Have a Dream Speech Analysis Research Paper

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Searching for I Have a Dream speech analysis? Look no further! This literary analysis focuses on rhetorical devices and persuasive techniques used by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Introduction

• Summary & the Key Messages
• Analysis of the Structure
• Ethos, Logos, & Pathos

“I Have a Dream” is the most famous speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is also considered as the best and greatest speech that was proclaimed in the history of the United States. It gathered more than 200,000 Americans of all races at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

The speech is an excellent example of persuasive rhetoric filled with many expressive means and stylistic devices, such as metaphors, repetitions, allusions, epithets and persuasive constructions. The speech has become a symbol of a new era of freedom and symbol of the American civil rights movement.

I Have a Dream: Summary & the Key Messages

“I Have a Dream” is a representation of the “America Dream” about a free and equal society. As Leff & Kauffeld (1989) mention, “Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech won immediate and sustained praise and has become a moral compass in American political culture” (p. 181).

The speech had a great influence on minds and visions of all Americans and “forever “legitimized” civil rights in the minds of most Amricans” (Leff & Kauffeld 1989, p. 181).

Marin Luther King was among the founders of the American civil rights movement. He led an active political life. He attended the Morehouse College in Atlanta, and then studied theology at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and Boston University.

In 1955, he became a president of the Montgomery Improvement Association and gained a public recognition for his activities in the campaign. He also is one of the organizers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. In 1963, the members of the conference led mass demonstrations in Alabama. These demonstrations resulted in the passage in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

During one of the march demonstrations for Jobs and Freedom, King pronounced his famous speech. (Durgut 2008). The main purpose of the speech is expressed in its name “I Have a Dream”. The dream of the author was to live in a free society and make all people equal regardless race and social position.

Passionately and powerfully, he claimed that reformation of the society is a task of the future. His words became a meaningful expression of the political and cultural situation in the country and “shaped” the idea for which every American should struggle.

Thus, his speech was aimed at inspiring Americans to take actions and improve their lives. The key message of the speech is “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal” (King 1963, n. p.). In order to come to this subject, the author divides the speech into three parts: introduction, first part (American reality) and second part (the prospects of the future).

First of all, he outlines the problem, “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (King 1963, n. p.), then he provides the detailed description of the racial injustice and inequality that face Americans.

He also inspired the listeners to rebel against these injustices claiming that “Now is the time” for changes, “now is the time to make real the promises of democracy” (King 1963, n. p.). Thus, he prepared people for the second part of his speech in which he presented the results of the changes.

King also expresses the dissatisfactions with the policies and laws which discriminated African Americans and their rights. The intended audience was the government representatives.

However, the author was intended to “touch minds” of all people, both black and white from all social layers. Emotionally and with anticipation, he addresses the people of America and, especially Negro people to whom he belongs:

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred (King 1963, n. p.).

He says “we” in order to show his concern and participation. When emphasizing the word “we” he demonstrates that everybody who understands the problem and seeks changes is involved and the “problem” is not a concern of the particular individuals, but it is a common problem and everybody should make his/her contribution to solve it.

The purpose of the author is to inform and inspire people for struggle and prepare them for changes. He builds his speech so that it was meaningful not only for political activists and Negro people, but to everybody. He says:

…the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny (King 1963, n. p.).

Thus, we can see that the speech is addressed to white people as well. Moreover, King says that “all people are brothers” and there is no racial distinction. Next important trait of the speech is that it was written at the time when the question of racial discrimination was urgent.

Black people faced inequality and violence. “King is known as a charismatic orator. His way of persuading people was to use the power of words instead of physical violence” (Durgut 2008, n. p.).

He knew exactly how to use words, and after he delivered the speech “I Have a Dream”, he gained a great appreciation from people and was called “The Man of the Year” by The Times magazine.

Moreover, a year later, he was awarded by the Nobel Peace Prize for his great contribution to the establishment of justice and peace in the world. These facts demonstrate how people assumed about the author and his activities.

During the time when the speech was proclaimed, television transferred the recent events of the raising struggle for civil rights. There were the episodes of the violence in Birmingham and Alabama. The March on Washington became the first step towards equality and justice.

Regardless the fact that by the time when the speech was proclaimed Abraham Lincoln put an end to slavery and signed the Emancipation Proclamation, discrimination and inequality still had a great power and did not decrease at local and even national levels.

This reality inspired King that something should be done in order to “open people’s eyes” and spread the ideas of equality and justice. In his speech, the author makes allusions to the documents that also addressed the same ideas as his speech.

He refers to the Emancipation Proclamation and the Bill of Rights; the author also cites the words from the Declaration of Independence, and addresses the Bible in order to show that God created all people equal and it was the responsibility of every person to preserve that equality. King met a great response from the audience.

The text of the speech was heard by a broad audience due to television and this allowed the author to reach “the hearts” of many people around America.

These days, the text of the speech is widely available for all who wants to read it. It can be found on the Internet at the American Rhetoric and other sites, as well as in many anthologies and books. The audio and video versions of the speech are also available on the Internet.

The main idea the all people should be treated equal is heard in every line of the text. In order to make the speech emotional and persuasive, King made use many stylistic devices, as well as paid a great attention to the content.

“I have a Dream” is a political speech with the elements of a sermon. According to the Aristotelian classification, it is a deliberative speech. The distinctive feature of this type of speech is the purpose of it. It aims at enabling the audience to make a judgment or a decision during the speech.

I Have a Dream: Analysis of the Speech Structure

There are three main parts of the speech: exordium, narration and argumentation and peroratio (introduction, main part and closing) (Black 2008). In every part of the speech, King presents particular information. With regard to the content, structure of the text has a great importance in representation of this content.

Every type of speech should begin with the exordium, “the functions of the exordium are to make the audience attentive, docile and benevolent” (Durgut 2008, n. p.).

Traditionally, the content of the introduction of the speech should present the salutation of the audience, the main idea and some general additional information to attract the listeners’ attention. Martin Luther King managed to include all the points into one sentence, “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation” (King 1963, n. p.).

Furthermore, the narration presents arguments, evidences and prospects for the future. The main part of Luther’s speech can also be divided into two parts. The first part of the main text provides the audience with the historical background of the “problem”.

The author describes social and political events that had place “Five score years ago” and the results that people could see “one hundred years later” (3 times) (King 1963, n. p.). In the next paragraphs, he calls people for action telling “now is the time” which he uses four times, “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.

Now is the time to rise from the dark… Now is the time to lift our nation… Now is the time to make justice a reality…” (King 1963, n. p.). The author also set goals for people who are ready to protect their rights and freedoms, “and as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back” (King 1963, n. p.).

He claims that people “can never be satisfied” as long as they have to be the victims of unjust policies and racial prejudice. In order to supper his argument, the author uses convincing evidences which he observed in the society.

He also makes allusions to historical documents, such as The Emancipation Proclamation, the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. In addition, he refers to the Bible as to a foundation of the “human law and justice”. The second part of the text is the author’s expectations.

He looks into the future with the words “I Have a Dream”, it is the main theme of the paragraph, as well as the speech as a whole. He begins this part with an emotional introduction, “I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream.

It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream” (King 1963, n. p.). He addresses a strong message for Caucasian people about peace and equality, and he expresses his hope that the positive changes will come in the nearest future, “King gave advice how to act and what to change currently, so his vision of the common future for the American society might come true one day” (Durgut 2008, n. p.).

He claims, “let freedom ring from” all over the United States and people will live happy. This idea is voiced in the peroration of the speech, and it provides strong and persuasive ending of the text.

As it has already been mentioned, King was a skillful orator and his speech is an example of high quality rhetoric. His speech presents all types of appeals, such as ethos, pathos and logos. “Pathos refers to how well you can appeal to someone’s emotion” (Black 2008, p. 48).

Ethos, Logos, & Pathos in I Have a Dream

Dr. Martin Luther King’s persuasive “I Have a Dream” speech was fueled by emotional components. He said that “African Americans were living on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.” (Black 2008 p. 48).

He persuaded to give the black Americans the equal rights, in the passage of his speech he says that “all men – yes, black men as well as Caucasians men – would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (King 1963, n. p.).

He uses logos when referring to historical documents and the Bible. Providing that all people are equal and friend, Martin Luther King uses ethos.

Language and style of the speech are bright, expressive and persuasive. He makes use various methods to convince the audience. Thus, he widely uses repetitions of key phrases and “theme words”, make allusions to significant historical events and important documents, provides specific examples to make his arguments significant and use broad metaphors to emphasize important moments and highlight the most important concepts and ideas.

So, the most important phrases that serve to attract the audience’s attention, such as “Now is the time…”, “We can never (cannot) be satisfied…”, “I Have a Dream…”, “Let freedom ring (from) …” are repeated in the successful sentences, or at the beginning of the sentences.

The theme words are repeated extensively through the text, they are “freedom” (20 times), “dream” (11), “we” (30), “our” (17), “justice” (8). Among the most “impressive” metaphors used by King are:

“Joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity”;

“The Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity”;

“Rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice”. (King 1963, n. p.).

Thus, we can come to a conclusion that the speech “I Have a Dream” is the most impressive political speeches that had a great influence on the history of the United States, and shaped visions of many Americans.

It is one of the best examples of the rhetorical art and persuasive writing. Thus, as Kenneth Tamarkin & Jeri W. Bayer (2002) say, “Martin Luther’s “I Have a Dream” speech is an eloquent appeal for integration and equality” (p. 399), and the representation of the American dream.

I Have a Dream Analysis: FAQ

• What Am I Have a Dream Speech about? One of the most iconic speeches in US history aims to put an end to racism in America. The key message of I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr. Is the importance of equal civil and economic rights for all US citizens.
• What Was the Purpose of the I Have a Dream Speech? In I Have a Dream , Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the issues of racism and segregation in the US. He encouraged using non-violent protests as a weapon to fight inequality.
• When Was the I Have a Dream Speech? The speech was delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King presented his speech from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to over 250,000 civil rights supporters.

Reference List

Black, Barry C. (2008). From the hood to the hill: A story of overcoming. New York: Thomas Nelson Inc.

Durgut, Ismail. (2008). “I Have a Dream”: an example of classical rhetoric in a post-modern speech . London: GRIN Verlag.

King, Martin Luther. (1963). I Have a Dream. American Rhetoric . Retrieved from https://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

Leff, Michael C., & Kauffeld, Fred J. (1989). Texts in context: critical dialogues on significant episodes in American political rhetoric . Davis: Routledge.

Tamarkin, Kenneth, & Bayer, Jeri W. (2002). McGraw-Hill’s GED Social Studies . New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.

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IvyPanda. (2019, March 25). I Have a Dream Speech Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/martin-luther-kings-i-have-a-dream-speech-analysis/

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Bibliography

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Martin Luther King Jr.’s Famous Speech Almost Didn’t Have the Phrase “I Have a Dream”

After staying up until 4 a.m. to craft a speech he hoped would have the same impact as the Gettysburg Address, MLK went off-script for his most iconic words.

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The best-laid plans are often better off ignored—at least that was the case with Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

Widely regarded as one of the world’s most “transformative and influential” speeches alongside Abraham Lincoln ’s 1863 Gettysburg Address and Winston Churchill ’s 1940 “Blood, toil, tears and sweat” speech , the impact of King’s words that hot summer afternoon in Washington D.C. struck a chord with civil rights advocates near and far and became a powerful rallying cry.

King’s speech added fuel to the ongoing movement for racial equality. Its impact helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , outlawing racial segregation in the United States.

But those four famous words almost didn’t make it into the speech.

King wanted the speech to be “like the Gettysburg Address”

Before he stepped up to the podium that day, King was already known on the national stage for his civil rights work. He had already been a leader in the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and the Greensboro sit-in movement in 1960 and was known for his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail , where he was taken after a peaceful demonstration.

The Baptist minister, who was also the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was known as a powerful orator, but the bulk of his audience had been within the Black community. Fellow civil rights activists A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin had reached out to him and other prominent figures in the movement to organize the march followed by three hours of speeches.

The three major television networks at the time—ABC, CBS, and NBC—had all promised to cover the event, so King knew the stakes were high. Even though he was limited to five minutes, his goal was clear: To make a speech with impact on the nation “like the Gettysburg address.”

He confided in a team of trusted advisors

To carefully craft the right words, King turned to his inner circle. Stanley Levison and Clarence Jones, two of his advisers, wrote the first draft. “When it came to my speech drafts, [King] often acted like an interior designer,” Jones said, according to The Guardian . “I would deliver four strong walls, and he would use his God-given abilities to furnish the place so it felt like home.”

Even though they knew the importance of the speech, they were only able to gather as a group at the Willard Hotel the evening before the speech. “We met in the lobby rather than in a suite, under the assumption that the lobby would be harder to wiretap,” Jones wrote in The Washington Post . “It was with this odd start, hiding in plain sight, that 12 hours before the March on Washington began, Martin gathered with a small group of advisers to hammer out the themes of his speech.”

Even though King was happy with the draft, he had wanted to get as much input as possible. “So that evening he had a cross-section of advisers present to fill any blind spots,” Jones wrote. “Cleveland Robinson, Walter Fauntroy, Bernard Lee, Ralph Abernathy , Lawrence Reddick, and I joined him, along with Wyatt Walker and Bayard Rustin , who were in and out of our deliberations.”

Of course, everyone had their own take, which became a challenge to juggle. “As we ate sandwiches, our suggestions tumbled out,” Jones remembers. “Cleve, Lawrence, and I saw the speech as an opportunity to stake an ideological and political marker in the debate over civil rights and segregation. Others were more inclined for Martin to deliver a sort of church sermon, steeped in parables and Bible quotes. Some, however, worried that biblical language would obfuscate the real message—reform of the legal system. And still others wanted Martin to direct his remarks to the students, Black and white, who would be marching that day.”

“I have a dream” was originally cut from the speech

The idea of the “dream” had actually been one that King long talked about, almost like a theme throughout his previous speeches. Walker had the strongest opinion: “Don’t use the lines about ‘I have a dream.’ It’s trite, it’s cliche. You’ve used it too many times already.”

Respecting his view, the mention of the dream was cut from the speech. At 4 a.m., King finally went to bed. “I am now going upstairs to my room to counsel with my Lord,” he said, according to The Guardian . “I will see you all tomorrow.”

“It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment”

While everything was meticulously planned, the organizers still worried there might not be the turnout they hoped for. After all, they set a goal of 100,000 to attend the March on Washington.

But on August 28—despite the heat in the nation’s capital, which reached 87 degrees Fahrenheit with uncomfortable humidity—people started showing up en masse. Among them were notable names: Josephine Baker , Marlon Brando , Harry Belafonte , Sammy Davis Jr. , James Garner , Charlton Heston, Paul Newman , and Sidney Poitier .

“It was truly staggering. Estimates vary widely, depending on the agenda of who was keeping count, but those of us who were involved in planning the March put the number at a minimum of 250,000,” Jones wrote in his book Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation . “They showed up to connect with the Movement, to draw strength from the speakers and from each other.”

By the time it was King’s turn, some people had already headed out because of the stifling heat. But nothing was holding him back from his moment on the national stage. “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation,” he first addressed the crowd.

Then, much like the Lincoln speech he sought inspiration from that started “Four score and seven years ago,” King said “Five score years ago,” and highlighted the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation . “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free,” he continued, before describing the state of African American life in the United States.

Then he moved into the purpose of the march: “In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, Black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment,” he continued, emphasizing why it was essential for imminent action. “And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”

A gospel singer prompted King to say “I have a dream”

While his words were impactful, they didn’t have the tremendous punch he was hoping for. But then gospel singer Mahalia Jackson , who had sung “I’ve Been ’Buked and I’ve Been Scorned” and was close to King, instinctively shouted out, “Tell ’em about the dream, Martin.”

Throwing the script out the window, he turned to his dream.

“Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream,” he started before launching into his most famous passage:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”

Building up a cadence that had the crowd engaged and enthused, he concluded: “And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”

King knew that abandoning his manuscript created the strongest impact

Looking back on the day, Jones notes a shift as soon King threw all the prepared remarks out the window: “When he was reading from his text, he stood like a lecturer. But from the moment he set that text aside, he took on the stance of a Baptist preacher.” And that was the kind of messaging America needed to hear.

Even King looked back on all the long hours preparing and realized that nothing resonated more than reading a crowd and trusting his instinct.

“I started out reading the speech, and I read it down to a point,” helater said. “The audience response was wonderful that day… and all of a sudden this thing came to me that… I’d used many times before… ‘I have a dream.’ And I just felt that I wanted to use it here… I used it, and at that point I just turned aside from the manuscript altogether. I didn’t come back to it.”

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Deseret News archives: King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech in 1963 stands test of time

March on washington for jobs and freedom on aug. 28, 1963, was for the most part a peaceful event.

By Chris Miller

A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives .

The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was an important moment in U.S. history. While some might argue that the march was more about daily needs — as in jobs — it has certainly stood the test of time as a momentous movement about civil rights.

And one of the reasons it still resonates is the famous speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. His “I have a dream” speech on Aug. 28, 1963, pricked a nation’s collective conscience.

Newspapers of the day followed the march with great interest, although a unique situation in Utah pushed the story to the bottom of the page. A horrific mine disaster in Moab on Aug. 27 had drawn Utahns’ attention from national events to more a more personal interest.

Why King? What about the speech stands the test of time?

According to colleague Kelsey Dallas, Pew Research Center found that a large share of U.S. adults — 81% — believe that King had a very positive or somewhat positive impact on the country, but only 38% of Americans felt their personal views on racial equality were shaped by his work.

And that’s OK. One of the things that struck me in coverage of the 1963 march was the peaceful nature of the more than 100,000 who gathered on the National Mall, per reporting of the day.

And if you ever want to quote King’s “I have a dream” line, here is that part of the speech, along with other articles from Deseret News archives on the Rev. King:

“... I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

“I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of ‘interposition’ and ‘nullification,’ one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

“This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. ...”

“ ‘I have a dream’ was cut from the original draft of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech ”

“ Opinion: What people of faith can learn from MLK’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech 60 years later ”

“ Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘dream’ 50 years later ”

“ Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy ”

“ Video: Watch Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s previously lost speech from 1962 ″

“ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: I have a dream ”

“ Opinion: Rev. King’s advice for developing compassion? Learn to see another’s point of view ”

“ Perspective: The power of a dream ”

“ Five essential sermons delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. ”

History | Today in History: Martin Luther King delivers…

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History | Today in History: Martin Luther King delivers ‘I Have a Dream’ speech

Today in history:

On Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech before an estimated 250,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Also on this date:

In 1845, the first issue of “Scientific American” magazine was published; it remains the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.

In 1862, the Second Battle of Bull Run began in Prince William County, Virginia, during the Civil War; the Union army retreated two days later after suffering 14,000 casualties.

In 1898, pharmacist Caleb Bradham of New Bern, North Carolina changed the name of the carbonated beverage he’d created five years earlier from “Brad’s Drink” to “Pepsi-Cola.”

In 1955, Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had allegedly whistled at a white woman four days prior; he was found brutally slain three days later.

In 1957, U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) began what remains the longest speaking filibuster in Senate history (24 hours and 18 minutes) in an effort to stall the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

In 1968, police and anti-war demonstrators clashed in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president.

In 1988, 70 people were killed when three Italian Air Force stunt planes collided during an air show at the U.S. Air Base in Ramstein, West Germany.

In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation as Hurricane Katrina approached the city.

In 2013, a military jury sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives and left 30 people injured.

In 2016, six scientists completed a yearlong Mars simulation on the big island of Hawaii, where they emerged after living in a dome in near isolation on Mauna Loa.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is 84. Actor Ken Jenkins (TV: “Scrubs”) is 84. Former MLB manager and player Lou Piniella  is 81. Former MLB pitcher Ron Guidry is 74. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove is 72. Artist Ai Weiwei is 67. Actor Daniel Stern is 67. Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 66. Actor Jennifer Coolidge is 63. Film director David Fincher is 62. Country singer Shania Twain is 59. “Pokemon” creator Satoshi Tajiri is 59. Actor Billy Boyd is 56. Actor Jack Black is 55. Hockey Hall of Famer Pierre Turgeon is 55. Actor Jason Priestley is 55. Technology executive Sheryl Sandberg is 55. Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 53. Actor Carly Pope is 43. Country singer Jake Owen is 43. Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 42. Rock singer Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) is 38. Actor Quvenzhane Wallis is 21.

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That Time Martin Luther King Jr. Said The Three Sentences About Racism Republicans Have Ever Heard

August 28, 1963, in labor history.

On August 28, 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in Washington DC. This famous event is of course most often remembered for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, or more specifically the three lines of it that conservatives have decided justify their own positions. But even among liberals and Civil Rights activists what is often forgotten or downplayed in the memory of this event is the central role economic issues played in it. Most of the economic agenda of the 1960s Civil Rights movement in fact is barely remembered. That’s a huge problem because not only were African-Americans fighting for the opportunity for economic advancement as well as to end segregation and for the vote, but also because it presents an incomplete history which takes away part of the reason this movement so challenged American life.

First, it’s worth noting that the original idea for the March on Washington came from a union. In 1941, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters President A. Philip Randolph called for a march on Washington to protest hiring discrimination in defense plants as the nation was gearing up for World War II. Like with most issues concerning minorities, FDR didn’t really care — but he didn’t want the bad publicity, so he caved and ordered the end of hiring discrimination on government defense contracts. This opened up a lot of jobs to African-Americans during World War II and helped build the Black middle class that would do much to push forward the freedom struggle after the war.

Learn the things with your Wonkette!

Randolph was still active in the movement in 1963, although more as a senior figure than a major player. But he, Bayard Rustin, and others revived the idea of the march to push John F. Kennedy to do something on Civil Rights, which he had been frustratingly reluctant to do. Rustin was hired to organize the event. Rustin had been a communist in the past and that greatly worried anti-communists like the NAACP’s Roy Wilkins (who did not even want to make a statement about the death of W.E.B. DuBois at the March because he hated him for his communism — but who did when he realized Randolph would do it and it would be favorable). But Rustin had played a role in the planning for the 1941 march and he had Randolph’s trust. Rustin was also gay, which worried a lot of the sexually conservative Civil Rights elites. Of course Strom Thurmond used Rustin’s role to paint the entire march as a communist front, and J. Edgar Hoover rejected a report showing no significant communist infiltration into the Civil Rights Movement, but this was just standard fare from the white supremacist American power structure.

The NAACP and most importantly Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference agreed to the idea, while the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee were happy to use the opportunity to take on Kennedy publicly and directly for his inaction. The Civil Rights Movement was a diverse movement with a lot of different groups and aims. That meant some careful alliance building was needed. But the different groups did come up with specific goals to fight for which included not only the passage of Civil Rights legislation, but a $2 minimum wage ($20.47 today), federal employment law banning discrimination in public or private hiring, and the expansion of the Fair Labor Standards Act to include agricultural workers, domestic workers, and the rest of the workers excluded when the law passed in 1938.

During the March itself, Bayard Rustin read all these demands on live television, which may be the only time a list of labor demands has received that kind of coverage. A. Philip Randolph led off the speeches by saying, “We are the advanced guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom” and that “the sanctity of private property takes second place to the sanctity of a human personality” in arguing for housing reform.

Playing a key role in the March on Washington was United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther. Organized labor often has a bad reputation on Civil Rights during this era, mostly for a good reason. Reuther is an important exception. This doesn’t mean he could instantly turn UAW locals into beacons of racial harmony. Turns out that racial solidarity has a lot more power with a lot more people than class solidarity, and UAW officials found that out the hard way when they tried to push Civil Rights on the shop floor. But that’s an issue for another entry in this series.

Reuther provided key labor support for the event. The AFL-CIO paid for a lot of the infrastructure of making this event happen, including the buses to get people to Washington, and the UAW paid for the sound system that would blast King’s speech into history. This all happened over the opposition of AFL-CIO head George Meany, who did not care much about Civil Rights before this and who opposed an official federation endorsement of the March. But the AFL-CIO did officially support the Kennedy Civil Rights bill. It is said that Meany however was so moved by Randolph’s speech at the March that he created the A. Philip Randolph Institute to promote African-Americans in the labor movement.

Reuther stated in his speech, “And the job question is crucial because we will not solve education or housing or public accommodations as long as millions of American Negroes are treated as second-class economic citizens and denied jobs.” Reuther knew that he had a friend in King because even as a lot of internationals and locals resisted the Civil Rights Movement, King consistently supported the progressive causes of labor and frequently spoke to labor audiences. And of course as King went on, he became more and more focused on economic justice as a centerpiece of the larger freedom struggle, to the point of dying while supporting the Memphis sanitation workers strike in 1968 .

While it’s difficult to measure the precise impact of the March on the political process so soon before Kennedy’s death, we can pretty clearly say it led to the inclusion of the Fair Employment Practices clause into what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Also please notice how little a role Martin Luther King Jr. has played in this post. The March on Washington was not all about MLK, although that in no ways diminishes his importance to the movement or the “I Have a Dream” speech. But it was a lot more than one man giving one speech.

Maybe we should remember the real history of the March on Washington instead of a fake one.

All Wonkette posts are public. Feel free to

FURTHER READING:

William P. Jones, The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of the Civil Rights Movement

Bruce Nelson, Divided We Stand: American Workers and the Struggle for Black Equality

Michael Honey, To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice

David Lewis Coleman, Race Against Liberalism: Black Workers and the UAW in Detroit

(The preceding links give a small commission to Wonkette.)

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National News | Today in History: August 28, Martin Luther…

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National News

National news | today in history: august 28, martin luther king, jr. delivers “i have a dream” speech, also on this day, new orleans mayor ray nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation as hurricane katrina approached the city.

Today in history:

On Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech before an estimated 250,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Also on this date:

In 1845, the first issue of “Scientific American” magazine was published; it remains the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.

In 1898, pharmacist Caleb Bradham of New Bern, North Carolina changed the name of the carbonated beverage he’d created five years earlier from “Brad’s Drink” to “Pepsi-Cola.”

In 1955, Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had allegedly whistled at a white woman four days prior; he was found brutally slain three days later.

In 1957, U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) began what remains the longest speaking filibuster in Senate history (24 hours and 18 minutes) in an effort to stall the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

In 1968, police and anti-war demonstrators clashed in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president.

In 1988, 70 people were killed when three Italian Air Force stunt planes collided during an air show at the U.S. Air Base in Ramstein (RAHM’-shtyn), West Germany.

In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation as Hurricane Katrina approached the city.

In 2013, a military jury sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives and left 30 people injured.

In 2016, six scientists completed a yearlong Mars simulation on the big island of Hawaii, where they emerged after living in a dome in near isolation on Mauna Loa.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is 84.
• Actor Ken Jenkins (TV: “Scrubs”) is 84.
• Former MLB manager and player Lou Piniella (pih-NEHL’-uh) is 81.
• Former MLB pitcher Ron Guidry (GIH’-dree) is 74.
• Former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove is 72.
• Artist Ai Weiwei is 67.
• Actor Daniel Stern is 67.
• Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 66.
• Actor Jennifer Coolidge is 63.
• Film director David Fincher is 62.
• Country singer Shania (shah-NY’-uh) Twain is 59.
• “Pokemon” creator Satoshi Tajiri is 59.
• Actor Billy Boyd is 56.
• Actor Jack Black is 55.
• Hockey Hall of Famer Pierre Turgeon is 55.
• Actor Jason Priestley is 55.
• Technology executive Sheryl Sandberg is 55.
• Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 53.
• Actor Carly Pope is 43.
• Country singer Jake Owen is 43.
• Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 42.
• Rock singer Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) is 38.
• Actor Quvenzhane (kwuh-VEHN’-zhah-nay) Wallis is 21.
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