I Have a Dream

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I Have a Dream

"I Have A Dream" is the popular name given to the public speech

Public speaking

Public speaking is the process of Speech communication to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners....
by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an United States pastor, activist and prominent leader in the African-American African-American Civil Rights Movement ....
, when he spoke of his desire for a future where blacks

Black people

Black people is a term usually referring to a Race of humans with a dark skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse populations into one common group....
and whites, among others, would coexist harmoniously as equals. King's delivery of the speech on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial is a Presidential memorials in the United States built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C....
during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement

African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)

The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing racism against African Americans and restoring suffrage in Southern states....
. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters, the speech is often considered to be one of the greatest and most notable speeches in history and was ranked the top American

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.

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Encyclopedia

"I Have A Dream" is the popular name given to the public speech

Public speaking

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Black people

Lincoln Memorial

African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)

United States

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as "the House", is one of the bicameralism of the United States Congress; the other is the United States Senate....
John Lewis

John Lewis (politician)

John Robert Lewis is an united States politician and was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement . He was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and played a key role in the struggle to end Racial segregation....
, who also spoke that day as the President of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, "Dr. King had the power, the ability and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a modern day pulpit. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations."

At the end of the speech, Dr. King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme of "I have a dream", possibly prompted by Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson was an United States gospel music singer, widely regarded as the best in the history of the genre, and is the first "Queen of Gospel Music"....
's cry, "Tell them about the dream, Martin!". He had delivered a speech incorporating some of the same sections in Detroit in June 1963, when he marched on Woodward Avenue

M-1 (Michigan highway)

M-1, more commonly known as Woodward Avenue, is a north-south Michigan Highway System in the U.S. state of Michigan. Until a few years ago, the northern terminus of M-1 was at Interstate 75 Business and U.S....
with Walter Reuther

Walter Reuther

Walter Philip Reuther was an American Labor unions in the United States leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party in the mid 20th century....
and the Reverend C. L. Franklin

C. L. Franklin

The Reverend Clarence LaVaughn Franklin was an United States Baptist minister as well as a Civil Rights Activism. He was also the father of soul singer and songwriter Aretha Franklin....
, and had rehearsed other parts.

Style

Widely hailed as a masterpiece of rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with logic and dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse....
, King's speech resembles the style of a Baptist sermon

Sermon

A sermon is an public speaking by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Bible, Theology, Religion, or Morality topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or Human behavior within both past and present contexts....
. It appeals to such iconic and widely respected sources as the Bible

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
and invokes the United States Declaration of Independence

United States Declaration of Independence

The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the Thirteen Colonies then at war with Kingdom of Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire....
, the Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation consists of two Executive order s issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War....
, and the United States Constitution

United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
. Through the rhetorical device of allusion

Allusion

An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, mythology, or work of art, either directly or by implication....
, King makes use of phrases and language from important cultural texts. Early in his speech King alludes to Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery....
's Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address was a speech by President of the United States Abraham Lincoln and one of the most quoted speeches in history of the United States....
by saying "Five score years ago...." Biblical allusions are also prevalent. For example, King alludes to Psalm 30:5 in the second stanza of the speech. He says in reference to the abolition of slavery

Abolitionism

File:BLAKE10.JPGAbolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical religious groups con...
articulated in the Emancipation Proclamation, "It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity." Another Biblical allusion is found in King's tenth stanza: "No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." This is an allusion to Amos 5:24. King also quotes from Isaiah 40:4 — "I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted..." Additionally, King alludes to the opening lines of Shakespeare's "Richard III

Richard III (play)

Richard III is a Shakespearean history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591, depicting the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England....
" when he remarks, "this sweltering summer of the Negro

Negro

Negro is a term referring to people of Black people ancestry. Prior to the shift in the lexicon of American and worldwide classification of race and ethnicity in the late 1960s, the appellation was accepted as a normal neutral formal term both by those of Black African descent as well as non-African blacks....
's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn..."

Anaphora

Anaphora

In rhetoric, an anaphora is emphasizing words by repeating them at the beginnings of neighboring clauses. In contrast, an Epistrophe is repeating words at the clauses' ends....
, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of sentences, is a rhetorical tool employed throughout the speech. An example of anaphora is found early as 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 when King used anaphora include "One hundred years later," "We can never be satisfied," "With this faith," and "Let freedom ring."

Speech title

That which we know as the "I Have A Dream Speech" has been shown to have had several versions, written at several different times . The speech 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 . Our focus on "I have a dream," comes through the speech's delivery. Toward the end of its delivery, a woman, perhaps Mahalia Jackson, noted African American gospel songstress, herself shouted out 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." Thus, this speech is rightly called by that phrase which makes it so famous and so immediate to the moment of its delivery.

Key excerpts

"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note
Promissory note

A promissory note, also referred to as a note payable in accounting, is a contract where one party makes an unconditional promise in writing to pay a sum of money to the other , either at a fixed or determinable future time or on demand of the payee, under specific terms....
to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness " is one of the most famous phrases in the United States Declaration of Independence. These three aspects are listed among the "inalienable rights" of man....
. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'"
"It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual."
"The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people. For many of our white brothers as evidenced by their presence here today have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We can not walk alone."
"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
All men are created equal

The quotation "All men are created equal" is arguably the best-known phrase in any of United States's political documents, as the idea it expresses is generally considered the foundation of American government....
.'"
"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 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 a table of brotherhood."
"This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."
"Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."
"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom 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 Gentile
Gentile

The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite tribes or nations in translations of the Bible, most notably the English King James Version.It serves as the Latin and subsequenly English translation of the Hebrew language words ??? and ???? in the Old Testament and the Greek language word ???? in the New Testament....
s, Protestants and Catholic
Catholic

Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek language adjective , meaning "whole" or "complete". In the context of Christianity ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages....
s—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!"

Legacy

The March on Washington put much more pressure on the Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
administration to advance civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights ensuring things such as the protection of peoples' physical integrity; procedural fairness in law; protection from discrimination based on sexism, religious intolerance, Racism, Homophobia, etc; individual freedom of freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom...
legislation in Congress. 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

Person of the Year

Person of the Year is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year."...
by TIME magazine

Time (magazine)

Time is a weekly United States newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. A European edition is published from London....
for 1963, and in 1964, he was the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to Nobel's will , the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for :wikt:fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the h...
.

In 2002, the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books....
honored the speech by adding it to the United States National Recording Registry

List of recordings preserved in the United States National Recording Registry

The recordings preserved in the United States National Recording Registry form a registry of recordings selected yearly by the National Recording Preservation Board for preservation in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress....
.

In 2003, the National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the List of United States federal agencies that manages all List of areas in the United States National Park System, many U.S....
dedicated an inscribed marble pedestal to commemorate the location of King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

In 2000, Simon Pearson used excerpts from the speech in his dance single "Free At Last".

Similarities to other speeches

Approximately twenty percent, the last two minutes, of King's historic speech bears a strong resemblance to a speech delivered in 1952 at the Republican National Convention by Reverend Archibald Carey, Jr

Archibald Carey, Jr

Archibald J. Carey, Jr was an American lawyer, judge, politician, diplomat and clergyman from the South side of Chicago. He was an alderman for many years under the patronage of powerful African-American politician William L....
., a personal friend of King's. Many, however, believe that the similarities are so slight that they do not rise to the level of plagiarism

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and representation of them as one's own original work.Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud and offenders are subject to academic censure....
.

Copyright dispute

Because King distributed copies of the speech at its performance, there was controversy regarding the speech's copyright status for some time. This led to a lawsuit, Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc.
Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc.

Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc. is a United States court case that involved a longstanding dispute about the public domain copyright status of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous public speaking, known by the key phrase I Have a Dream, originally delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C....
, which established that the King estate does hold copyright over the speech and had standing to sue

Standing (law)

In the common law, and under many statutes, standing or locus standi is the ability of a party to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support that party's participation in the case....
; the parties then settled. Unlicensed use of the speech or a part of it can still be lawful in some circumstances and jurisdictions under doctrines such as fair use

Fair use

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review....
or fair dealing

Fair dealing

Fair dealing is a doctrine of limitations and exceptions to copyright which is found in many of the common law jurisdictions of the Commonwealth of Nations....
.

External links

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