As the nation commemorates the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic 'I Have a Dream' speech continues to resonate and inspire renewed efforts toward achieving the dream of equality for all.
FILE-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives his"I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd before the Lincoln Memorial during the Freedom March in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The last part of the speech took less time to deliver than it takes to boil an egg, but "I Have A Dream" is one of American history’s most famous orations and most inspiring.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, who today is the District of Columbia’s veteran nonvoting delegate to Congress, was a SNCC member who helped organize the march. She remembers that march leaders got Lewis to tone down his planned speech because of concern it was too inflammatory. "He had phrases in there about, for example, Sherman marching through Georgia," Norton said, a reference to Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman burning most of Atlanta during the Civil War.
A King biographer, Jonathan Eig, said King hit the end of his written remarks and kept going because "he was Martin Luther King" and "it was time to do what he loved to do best, and that’s to give a sermon."Although he set the text aside, his deviation was not extemporaneous in the truest since of the word.
Young said the speech "wasn’t going too well, but everybody was polite listening. But then Mahalia Jackson said, ‘Tell them about the dream Martin’ and he must have heard it or it was in his spirit any way and he took off." Aaron Bryant, curator of photography, visual culture and contemporary history at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, said the impact was immediate in some ways.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
'Jane Crow' and the March on WashingtonMuch of the national memorialization of the civil rights movement maintains a “great man” version of history.
Read more »
From MLK to today, the March on Washington highlights the evolution of activism by Black churchesThe March on Washington of 1963 is remembered most for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Read more »
From MLK to today, the March on Washington highlights the evolution of activism by Black churchesThe March on Washington of 1963 is remembered most for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech
Read more »
From MLK to today, the March on Washington highlights the evolution of activism by Black churchesThe March on Washington of 1963 is remembered most for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech
Read more »
From MLK to today, the March on Washington highlights the evolution of activism by Black churchesThe March on Washington of 1963 is remembered most for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech
Read more »