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January 20, 2020: It took just under 18 minutes for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to deliver what some consider to be America’s greatest speech of the 20th century.[1]
On August 28, 1963, the Baptist preacher and civil rights leader told the world of a dream that was “deeply rooted in the American dream.” He also made clear that “if America is to be a great nation," his dream of freedom and equality for all must “become true.”[2]
The most famous part of the speech—eight sentences beginning with the phrase “I Have a Dream”—was not in the text, but improvised by the eloquent preacher:[2]
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“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 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.”
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King then finished with a vision of a bright future that he would not live to see.[2]
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“And when this happens, and 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!"
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