'I Have A Dream': 50 years since Martin Luther King's iconic speech changed history

Updated 27 August 2013 at 11:53 am

Martin Luther King delivers his 'I Have A Dream' speech on August 28, 1963. (REX/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Activists hold up placards in Washington D.C. Thousands of protesters gathered in the city from all over America for the rally. (AP Photo)

Martin Luther King, center front, marches for civil rights with his arms linked with other activists. The march and King's speech in particular, pressured Congress to pass through civil rights legislation which made African Americans more equal with their fellow countrymen. (AP Photo, File)

Martin Luther King waves to the crowd during his speech. The reverend had spoken about his dreams since 1960 and he first used the refrain 'I have a dream' in a speech in Detroit several months before the march in Washington. (PA)

Civil rights demonstrators gather at the Washington Monument grounds before noon. The marchers paraded to the Lincoln Memorial, seen in the far background at right, where Martin Luther King delivered his speech. He was the sixteenth speaker on the day but his speech defined the march and galvanised the civil rights movement (Photo by Bob Burchette / The Washington Post) (AP Photo)

Leaders of the march posing in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Memorial. Bottom, left to right: Whitney Young, Cleveland Robinson, A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins. Top, left to right: Mathew Ahmann, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, John Lewis, unknown, Floyd McKissick, Walter Reuther. (REX/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, meet with the then US President John F. Kennedy at the White House after the march. Five years after this picture was taken both Martin Luther King and JFK had both been assassinated. (Photo by National Archive/Newsmakers)

It is 50 years since Martin Luther King delivered his 'I Have A Dream' speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The iconic oration was one of the defining moments of the 20th century and a turning point in the civil rights movement in America. At least 250,000 activists marched to the Lincoln Memorial and heard King's speech where he famously repeated the phrase 'I have a dream' eight times, spelling out his idea for his country where black and white Americans could live together freely and equally.

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