I Have a Dream
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Categories: Articles that may contain original research since February 2008 | 1963 in the United States | History of African-American civil rights | Martin Luther King, Jr. | Speeches | United States historical documents
This article is about the Martin Luther King, Jr. speech. For other uses, see I Have a Dream (disambiguation).
"I Have a Dream" is the popular name given to the historic public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., when he spoke of his desire for a future where blacks 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 during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over two hundred thousand 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 speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.[1] According to U.S. Congressman John Lewis, 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."[2] At the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme of "I have a dream", possibly prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry "Tell them about the dream, Martin!".[3] He had delivered a speech incorporating some of the same sections in Detroit in June 1963, when he marched on Woodward Avenue with Walter Reuther and the Rev. C.L. Franklin, and had rehearsed other parts.[4]
Style
Widely hailed as a masterpiece of rhetoric, King's speech resembles the style of a Black Baptist sermon. It appeals to such iconic and widely respected sources as the Bible and invokes the United States Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the United States Constitution. Through the rhetorical device of allusion, King makes use of phrases and language from important cultural texts for his own rhetorical purposes. Early in his speech King alludes to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by saying "Five score years ago..." Biblical allusions are also prevalent. For example, King alludes to Psalm 30:5[5] in the second stanza of the speech. He says in reference to the abolition of slavery 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.[6] King also quotes from Isaiah 40:4 — "I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted.." Anaphora, 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." Key excerpts
LegacyThe March on Washington put much more pressure on the Kennedy administration to advance civil rights 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 President Kennedy's assassination later in November of 1963, less than three months after the march, his successor Lyndon B. Johnson was able to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, followed by the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In the wake of the speech and march, King was named Man of the Year by TIME magazine for 1963, and in 1964, he was the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize[7]. In 2002, the Library of Congress honored the speech by adding it to the United States National Recording Registry. In 2003, the National Park Service dedicated an inscribed marble pedestal to commemorate the location of King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial.[8] 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, Sr., 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.[9] Copyright disputeBecause 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., which established that the King estate does hold copyright over the speech and had standing to sue; 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 or fair dealing. References
External links
ca:Tinc un somni cs:I Have a Dream da:I Have a Dream de:I Have a Dream es:Yo tengo un sueño eo:Mi Havas Revon fr:I have a dream ko:I Have a Dream it:I have a dream he:יש לי חלום ms:Saya Mempunyai Impian ja:I Have a Dream no:I Have a Dream pl:I Have a Dream pt:Eu Tenho Um Sonho ru:У меня есть мечта simple:I Have a Dream sl:I Have a Dream sv:I Have a Dream vi:Tôi có một giấc mơ | ||||||||||
