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. – Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream Quote I Have a Dream Speech Background Summary: I Have a Dream is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equalityand an end to discrimination. The speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, the speech was ranked the topAmerican speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address. According to U.S. Representative John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the President of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations. Speech Title and Performance: Believe it or not, the I Have a Dream speech was originally titled Normalcy, Never Again. and the first drafts never included the phrase I have a dream. He had first delivered a speech incorporating some of the same sections in Detroit in June 1963, when he marched on Woodward Avenue with Walter Reuther and the Reverend C. L. Franklin, and had rehearsed other parts. The popular title I have a dream, came from the speechs greatly improvised content and delivery. Near the end of the speech, famous African American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted to Dr. King from the crowd, Tell them about the dream, Martin. Dr. King stopped delivering his prepared speech and started preaching, punctuating his points with I have a dream. - See more at: mlkonline.net/dream.html#sthash.Z5QMaVyY.dpuf
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 09:48:27 +0000