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On This Day: Martin Luther King delivers his iconic ‘I have a dream’ speech
“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin"
August 28: U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King delivered his iconic and inspiring “I have a dream” speech to a 250,000 people in Washington on this day in 1963.
The 1,582-word address by the Atlanta clergyman, who helped win groundbreaking racial equality reforms, is considered one of the best orations in history.
Outside the Lincoln Memorial, King began by evoking that president’s Emancipation Proclamation, which freed millions of slaves during the U.S. Civil War.
[Reflections 50 years after Martin Luther King's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech]
He then added: “But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the negro is still not free.”
But the most iconic part – shown in a British Pathé newsreel - came when he spoke of his dream of racial unity, which at the time seemed impossible to most Americans.
“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,” he said.
[On This Day: Martin Luther King assassinated]
“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.’”
This alludes to the famous passage of the 1776 American Declaration of Independence from Britain.
Among King’s many dreams, he also declared that: “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”
And he added: “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.”
This referred to the Deep South state at the epicentre of the protests against civil rights abuses and segregation.
It was here that King became noticed when he led the 1955 boycott of Montgomery’s buses following the arrest of Rosa Parks, who refused to sit at the back.
The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled segregated public transport was illegal following the 385-day protest during which King’s house was firebombed.
[50 years later, U.S. marchers urge fulfilment of King's 'dream']
Alabama Governor George Wallace, who came to power in 1962, refused to adhere to another of the court’s rulings that black students could enrol at white-only colleges.
But, in spite of men like Wallace, King’s March on Washington dream speech, helped pave the way for radical change that would eventually lead to a black president.
The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in schools, the workplace, all public places and the Jim Crow Laws making it hard for black Southerners to vote.
King was assassinated at age 39 at a Memphis hotel in 1968, leading to the conviction of James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to murder after being captured in London.
Ray, who twice escaped from prison and died from Hepatitis C after a jail knifing, later recanted and the King family now believe he was an innocent scapegoat.
