Dr. Martin Luther King Jr “I Have a Dream”

Background

On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. addressed between 200,000 and 300,000 thousand people who had gatherned at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
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 a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four 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 the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today (Link to the full speech).


Here is the film



Questions

What kinds of analogies and metaphors does King use to describe the situation faced by African-Americans in the United States and the struggle for civil rights? Which ones do you find the most effective and why?

How does King shift his message within the speech to appeal to different groups in the civil rights movement?

Why do you think that the popular memory of the speech focuses almost entirely on the “I Have a Dream” section?



Sources

Martin Luther King Jr, “I Have a Dream,” the Avalon Project at Yale Law School.

Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954 -63. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1988.