I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) was a legendary civil rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner (1964) and a magnificent orator who led the non-violent struggle for the rights of African Americans, heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of peaceful resistance. On August 28, 1963 he delivered his historic 'I Have a Dream' speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., calling it the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of the nation.

A hundred years and still not free

King stands in the symbolic shadow of Abraham Lincoln, who had signed the Emancipation Proclamation exactly one hundred years prior. That decree had come as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves seared in the flames of withering injustice, a joyous daybreak ending their long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, King points out the tragic reality: the Negro is still not free.

The life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. The Negro continues to live on a 'lonely island of poverty' in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity, finding himself an exile in his own land.

The 'bad cheque' of America

King uses a powerful financial metaphor. When the architects of the American republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a 'promissory note' to which every American, black as well as white, was to fall heir, guaranteeing the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has defaulted, giving the Negro a 'bad cheque' returned marked 'insufficient funds'.

But King refuses to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt or that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity. He warns the nation not to ignore the 'fierce urgency of now', nor to take the 'tranquilizing drug of gradualism'. The sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality, and the whirlwinds of revolt will continue until the bright day of justice emerges.

Dignity, discipline and 'soul force'

King delivers a crucial message about the conduct of the struggle. His followers must not be guilty of wrongful deeds, nor seek to satisfy their thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. They must forever conduct the struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline, never allowing creative protest to degenerate into physical violence, but rising to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with 'soul force'.

He acknowledges the immense trials and tribulations his followers have faced, jail cells and police brutality, urging them to return to Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana knowing that the situation can and will be changed.

The dream and 'let freedom ring'

King then shares his magnificent, prophetic 'dream': that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and former slave owners will sit together at the table of brotherhood; that Mississippi, sweltering with injustice, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom; that his four little children will one day live in a nation where they are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character; and that in Alabama little black boys and girls will join hands with little white boys and girls as sisters and brothers.

He concludes with a call to 'let freedom ring' from every mountain, hill and molehill of America. When freedom rings from every village and hamlet, we will speed up the day when all of God's children, black and white, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will join hands and sing the old Negro spiritual: 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'