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I Have a Dream

Coordinates: 38°53′21.48″N 77°3′0.40″W / 38.8893000°N 77.0501111°W / 38.8893000; -77.0501111
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For other uses, see I Have a Dream (disambiguation).
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering "I Have a Dream" at the 1963 Washington D.C. Civil Rights March.
"I Have a Dream"
30-second sample from "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.
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"I Have a Dream" is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.[1]

Beginning with a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed millions of slaves in 1863,[2] King observes that: "one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free".[3] At the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme "I have a dream", possibly prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!"[4] In this part of the speech, which most excited the listeners and has now become its most famous, King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred.[5] Jon Meacham writes that, "With a single phrase, Martin Luther King, Jr. joined Jefferson and Lincoln in the ranks of men who've shaped modern America".[6] The speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century in a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.[7]

Background

View from the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument on August 28, 1963

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was partly intended to demonstrate mass support for the civil rights legislation proposed by President Kennedy in June. King and other leaders therefore agreed to keep their speeches calm, also, to avoid provoking the civil disobedience which had become the hallmark of the civil rights movement. King originally designed his speech as a homage to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, timed to correspond with the 100-year centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.[5]

Speech title and the writing process

King had been preaching about dreams since 1960, when he gave a speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called "The Negro and the American Dream". This speech discusses the gap between the American dream and the American lived reality, saying that overt white supremacists have violated the dream, but also that "our federal government has also scarred the dream through its apathy and hypocrisy, its betrayal of the cause of justice". King suggests that "It may well be that the Negro is God’s instrument to save the soul of America."[8][9] He had also delivered a "dream" speech 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.[10]

The March on Washington Speech, known as "I Have a Dream Speech", has been shown to have had several versions, written at several different times.[11] It has no single version draft, but is an amalgamation of several drafts, and was originally called "Normalcy, Never Again." Little of this, and another "Normalcy Speech," ends up in the final draft. A draft of "Normalcy, Never Again" is housed in the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection of Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center and Morehouse College.[12] The focus on "I have a dream," comes through the speech's delivery. Toward the end of its delivery, noted African American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted to King from the crowd, "Tell them about the dream, Martin."[13] King stopped delivering his prepared speech and started "preaching", punctuating his points with "I have a dream."

The speech was drafted with the assistance of Stanley Levison and Clarence Benjamin Jones[14] in Riverdale, New York City. Jones has said that "the logistical preparations for the march were so burdensome that the speech was not a priority for us" and that "on the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 27, [12 hours before the March] Martin still didn't know what he was going to say".[15]

Leading up to the speech's rendition at the Great March on Washington, King had delivered its "I have a dream" refrains in his speech before 25,000 people in Detroit's Cobo Hall immediately after the 125,000-strong Great Walk to Freedom in Detroit, June 23, 1963.[16][17] After the Washington, D.C. March, a recording of King's Cobo Hall speech was released by Detroit's Gordy records as an LP entitled "The Great March To Freedom."[18]

The speech

Widely hailed as a masterpiece of rhetoric, King's speech invokes the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the United States Constitution. Early in his speech, King alludes to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by saying "Five score years ago..." King says in reference to the abolition of slavery articulated in the Emancipation Proclamation, "It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity." Anaphora, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of sentences, is employed throughout the speech. Early in his speech, King urges his audience to seize the moment: "Now is the time..." is repeated four times in the sixth paragraph. The most widely cited example of anaphora is found in the often quoted phrase "I have a dream..." which is repeated eight times as King paints a picture of an integrated and unified America for his audience. Other occasions include "One hundred years later," "We can never be satisfied," "With this faith," "Let freedom ring," and "free at last." King was the sixteenth out of eighteen people to speak that day, according to the official program.[19]

I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream – one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed, 'We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal.' I have a dream . . .

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)[20]

Among the most quoted lines of the speech, include "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!".[21]

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."[22]

The ideas in the speech reflect King's social experiences of the mistreatment of blacks. The speech draws upon appeals to America's myths as a nation founded to provide freedom and justice to all people, and then reinforces and transcends those secular mythologies by placing them within a spiritual context by arguing that racial justice is also in accord with God's will. Thus, the rhetoric of the speech provides redemption to America for its racial sins.[23] King describes the promises made by America as a "promissory note" on which America has defaulted. He says that "America has given the Negro people a bad check", but that "we've come to cash this check" by marching in Washington, D.C.

Similarities and allusions

Further information: Martin Luther King, Jr. authorship issues

King's speech uses words and ideas from his own speeches and other texts. He had spoken about dreams, quoted from "My Country 'Tis of Thee", and of course referred extensively to the Bible, for years. The idea of constitutional rights as an "unfulfilled promise" was suggested by Clarence Jones.[8]

File:View through the opening of the Mountain of Despair.jpg
"With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope" — from the I Have a Dream speech, served as inspiration for the The King National Memorial [24]

The closing passage from King's speech partially resembles Archibald Carey, Jr.'s address to the 1952 Republican National Convention: both speeches end with a recitation of the first verse of Samuel Francis Smith's popular patriotic hymn "America" (My Country ’Tis of Thee), and the speeches share the name of one of several mountains from which both exhort "let freedom ring".[8]

King also is said to have built on Prathia Hall's speech at the site of a burned-down church in Terrell County, Georgia in September 1962, in which she used the repeated phrase "I have a dream".[25]

It also alludes to Psalm 30:5[26] in the second stanza of the speech.

King also quotes from Isaiah 40:4-5—"I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted..."[27] and Amos 5:24—"But let justice roll down like water..."[28] Additionally, King alludes to the opening lines of Shakespeare's "Richard III" ("Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer...") when he remarks, "this sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn..."

Responses

The speech was lauded in the days after the event, and was widely considered the high point of the March by contemporary observers.[29] James Reston, writing for the New York Times, said that “Dr. King touched all the themes of the day, only better than anybody else. He was full of the symbolism of Lincoln and Gandhi, and the cadences of the Bible. He was both militant and sad, and he sent the crowd away feeling that the long journey had been worthwhile.”[8] Reston also noted that the event "was better covered by television and the press than any event here since President Kennedy's inauguration," and opined that "it will be a long time before [Washington] forgets the melodious and melancholy voice of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. crying out his dreams to the multitude."[30] An article in the Boston Globe by Mary McGrory reported that King's speech "caught the mood" and "moved the crowd" of the day "as no other" speaker in the event.[31] Marquis Childs of The Washington Post wrote that King's speech "rose above mere oratory".[32] An article in the Los Angeles Times commented that the "matchless eloquence" displayed by King, "a supreme orator" of "a type so rare as almost to be forgotten in our age," put to shame the advocates of segregation by inspiring the "conscience of America" with the justice of the civil-rights cause.[33]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also noticed the speech, which provoked them to expand their COINTELPRO operation against the SCLC, and to target King specifically as a major enemy of the United States.[34] Two days after King delivered "I Have a Dream", Agent William C. Sullivan, the head of COINTELPRO, wrote a memo about King's growing influence:

In the light of King's powerful demagogic speech yesterday he stands head and shoulders above all other Negro leaders put together when it comes to influencing great masses of Negroes. We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security.[35]

The speech was a success for the Kennedy administration and for the liberal civil rights coalition that had planned it. It was considered a "triumph of managed protest", and not one arrest relating to the demonstration occurred. Kennedy had watched King's speech on TV and been very impressed. Afterwards, March leaders accepted an invitation to the White House to meet with President Kennedy. Kennedy felt the March bolstered the chances for his civil rights bill.[36] Some of the more radical Black leaders who were present condemned the speech (along with the rest of the march)[citation needed] as too compromising. Malcolm X later wrote in his Autobiography: "Who ever heard of angry revolutionaries swinging their bare feet together with their oppressor in lily pad pools, with gospels and guitars and 'I have a dream' speeches?"[5]

Legacy

The location on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial from which King delivered the speech is commemorated with this inscription

The March on Washington put pressure on the Kennedy administration to advance its civil rights legislation in Congress.[37] The diaries of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., published posthumously in 2007, suggest that President Kennedy was concerned that if the march failed to attract large numbers of demonstrators, it might undermine his civil rights efforts.

In the wake of the speech and march, King was named Man of the Year by TIME magazine for 1963, and in 1964, he was the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.[38] The full speech did not appear in writing until August 1983, some 15 years after King's death, when a transcript was published in the Washington Post.[3]

In 2002, the Library of Congress honored the speech by adding it to the United States National Recording Registry.[39]

In 2003, the National Park Service dedicated an inscribed marble pedestal to commemorate the location of King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial.[40]

On August 26, 2013 UK's BBC Radio 4 broadcast "God's Trombone" in which Gary Younge looked behind the scenes of the speech and explored "what made it both timely and timeless".[41]

On August 28, 2013, thousands gathered on the mall in Washington D.C. where King made his historic speech to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the occasion. In attendance were former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, and President Barack Obama, who addressed the crowd and spoke on the significance of the event. Many of King's family were in attendance.[42]

Because King's speech was broadcast to a large radio and television audience, there was controversy about the copyright status of the speech. If the performance of the speech constituted "general publication", it would have entered the public domain due to King's failure to register the speech with the Registrar of Copyrights. If the performance only constituted "limited publication", however, King retained common law copyright. This led to a lawsuit, Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc., which established that the King estate does hold copyright over the speech and had standing to sue; the parties then settled. Unlicensed use of the speech or a part of it can still be lawful in some circumstances, especially in jurisdictions under doctrines such as fair use or fair dealing. Under the applicable copyright laws, the speech will remain under copyright in the United States until 70 years after King's death, therefore until 2038.[43]

Original copy of the speech

As King waved goodbye to the audience, he handed George Raveling the original typewritten "I Have a Dream" speech.[44] Raveling, an all-American basketball player from Villanova, had volunteered as a security guard for the event and was on the podium with King at that moment.[45] Raveling still has custody of the original copy. Raveling has been offered as high as $3,000,000 for the original copy of the speech but claims to have no intention of selling it, with plans on leaving it to his children instead.[46][47]

References

  1. ^ Hansen, D, D. (2003). The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation. New York, NY: Harper Collins. p. 177.
  2. ^ I Have a Dream: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Future of Multicultural America, James Echols - 2004
  3. ^ a b Alexandra Alvarez, "Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" : The Speech Event as Metaphor", Journal of Black Studies 18(3); accessed via SagePub, DOI: 10.1177/002193478801800306.
  4. ^ See Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963.
  5. ^ a b c Nicolaus Mills, "What Really Happened at the March on Washington?", Dissent, Summer 1988; reprinted in Civil Rights Since 1787: A Reader on the Black Struggle, ed. Jonathan Birnbaum and Clarence Taylor, New York: New York University Press, 2000.
  6. ^ Meacham, Jon (August 26, 2013). "One Man". Time. p. 26.
  7. ^ Stephen Lucas and Martin Medhurst (December 15, 1999). "I Have a Dream Speech Leads Top 100 Speeches of the Century". University of Wisconsin–Madison. Retrieved 2006-07-18.
  8. ^ a b c d "I Have a Dream (28 August 1963)". The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Retrieved January 19, 2009.
  9. ^ Martin Luther King, Jr., "The Negro and the American Dream", speech delivered to the NAACP in Charlotte, NC, 25 September 1960.
  10. ^ "Interview With Martin Luther King III". CNN. August 22, 2003. Retrieved 2007-01-15.
  11. ^ Hansen, D, D. (2003). The original name of the speech was, "A Canceled Check," but the aspired ad lib of the dream from preacher's anointing brought forth a new entitlement, "I Have A Dream." The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation. New York, NY: Harper Collins. p. 70.
  12. ^ Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection, 2009. Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center
  13. ^ Hansen, D, D. (2003). The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation. New York, NY: Harper Collins. p. 58.
  14. ^ "Jones, Clarence Benjamin (1931- )". Martin Luther King Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle (Stanford University). Retrieved 2011-02-28.
  15. ^ "On Martin Luther King Day, remembering the first draft of 'I Have a Dream'". The Washington Post. 2011-01-16. Retrieved 2011-02-28.
  16. ^ Boyle, Kevin (May 1, 2007), Detroit’s Walk To Freedom, Michigan History Magazine
  17. ^ Garrett, Bob, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Detroit Freedom Walk, Michigan Department of Natural Resources - Michigan Library and Historical - Center Michigan Historical Center, retrieved February 15, 2012
  18. ^ Ward, Brian (1998), Recording the Dream, vol. 48, History Today
  19. ^ "Document for August 28th: Official Program for the March on Washington". Archives.gov.
  20. ^ Edwards, Willard, Chicago Tribune, 29 August 1963, p. 5
  21. ^ Excel HSC Standard English, p. 108, Lloyd Cameron, Barry Spurr - 2009
  22. ^ "A "Dream" Remembered". NewsHour. August 28, 2003. Retrieved 2006-07-19.
  23. ^ See David A. Bobbitt, The Rhetoric of Redemption: Kenneth Burke's Redemption Drama and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004)
  24. ^ "Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial". Washington.org.
  25. ^ Holsaert, Faith et al. Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC. University of Illinois Press, 2010, p. 180.
  26. ^ "Psalm 30:5". Today's New International Version of the Bible. Retrieved 2007-01-15.
  27. ^ "Isaiah 40:4-5". King James Version of the Bible. Retrieved 2010-01-13.
  28. ^ "Amos 5:24". King James Version of the Bible. Retrieved 2013-08-29.
  29. ^ "The News of the Week in Review: March on Washington—Symbol of intensified drive for Negro rights," New York Times (September 1, 1963). The high point and climax of the day, it was generally agreed, was the eloquent and moving speech late in the afternoon by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., [...].
  30. ^ James Reston, "'I Have a Dream...: Peroration by Dr. King sums up a day the capital will remember," New York Times (August 29, 1963).
  31. ^ Mary McGrory, "Polite, Happy, Helpful: The Real Hero Was the Crowd," Boston Globe (August 29, 1963).
  32. ^ Marquis Childs, "Triumphal March Silences Scoffers," The Washington Post (August 30, 1963).
  33. ^ Max Freedman, "The Big March in Washington Described as 'Epic of Democracy'," Los Angeles Times (Sep. 9, 1963).
  34. ^ Tim Weiner, Enemies: A history of the FBI, New York: Random House, 2012, p. 235
  35. ^ Memo hosted by American Radio Works (American Public Media), "The FBI's War on King".
  36. ^ Reeves, Richard, President Kennedy: Profile of Power,1993, pp. 580–584
  37. ^ Clayborne Carson "King, Obama, and the Great American Dialogue," American Heritage, Spring 2009.
  38. ^ "Martin Luther King". The Nobel Foundation. 1964. Retrieved 2007-04-20.
  39. ^ "The National Recording Registry 2002". Library of Congress.
  40. ^ "We Shall Overcome, Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement: Lincoln Memorial". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-01-15.
  41. ^ "God's Trombone: Remembering King's Dream". bbc.co.uk. 26 August 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  42. ^ Miller, Zeke J (2013-08-28). "In Commemorative MLK Speech, President Obama Recalls His Own 2008 Dream". Swampland.time.com. Retrieved 2013-09-01.
  43. ^ Strauss, Valerie. "'I Have a Dream' speech still private property". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  44. ^ Xavier L. Suarez (27 October 2011). Democracy in America: 2010. AuthorHouse. pp. 10–. ISBN 978-1-4567-6056-4. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  45. ^ Karen Price Hossell (5 December 2005). I Have a Dream. Heinemann-Raintree Library. pp. 34–. ISBN 978-1-4034-6811-6. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  46. ^ Weir, Tom George Raveling owns MLK's 'I have a dream' speech. USA Today, February 27, 2009
  47. ^ Brinkley, Douglas (2003-08-28). "Guardian of The Dream". Time.com. Retrieved 2013-08-28.

38°53′21.48″N 77°3′0.40″W / 38.8893000°N 77.0501111°W / 38.8893000; -77.0501111

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