MLK's I Have A Dream
Summary: Dr King begins his speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with a reference to the famed emancipator, saying "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation." However, this joyous and celebratory tone lasts only a few lines, when MLK then says that even 100 years later, black Americans were not truly free. He then spend the great majority of his speech discussing the wrongs of segregation, discrimination, and police brutality. After working up the audience by listing their many grievances, the Reverend Dr. urges them to remain in peaceful protest, and not to descend into violence and chaos, as such would only harm the movement for legal and social equality. Finally, MLK closes with the "I Have a Dream" segment for which the speech is famously named. He discusses his hopes of a world where race is not a factor in life, law, or politics, and the hopes he has for his children's future and the future of their children. To fully close the speech, Dr. King quotes several lines of an old spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Overall, the speech was extremely powerful and moving, and did a great job of both getting people upset/committed, and reminding them to remain peaceful and kind in their push for liberty.
(At the same time as MLK urged peaceful protest to attain their goals of equality and freedom, another civil rights group, the Black Panthers, urged the need for militant defense of their rights by force. Although there were few actual incidents of violence from the Panthers, they often dressed like insurgents and carried blades and firearms as a threat to any who would attempt to tread on their rights).
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