"I Have a Dream" Speech Story

          The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. said Wednesday that 100 years after slavery ended, the Negro is still not free to more than 250,000 marchers.­

          King, who is from Atlanta, Georgia and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, delivered the speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial stating that it would be the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of the nation.

         The speech was part of a march on Washington to support the civil rights legislation proposed by President John F. Kennedy. King and the SCLC have been advocating for Negro equal rights and freedom since 1957.

          Despite the Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, and the amendments to the Constitution, King said that Negros are exiles in their own land.

          “One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land,” King said. 

          King discussed the exploitation and mistreatment that he and the Negro community have faced and how the nation’s dream was founded to provide equal rights and freedom to all, including blacks.

          King said that 1963 is the beginning of change and that the Negro community needs to pull together and march forward until they get equal rights and freedoms.

          “…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,” King said.

          King stated that his dream was that one day the nation would realize this idea.

          “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,” King said.

           The crowd roared with cheers and applause. King said that he hoped and dreamed that in the future, his children would be judged for who they are and not their race.

          “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,” King said.

           King said that when America realizes this dream, it will be a great nation and that freedom will ring throughout the nation and all will join hands.

          “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 …: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’” King said.

Grade: 85/100