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I Have a Dream - summary

On August 28, 1963, King gives his speech for freedom. He begins his speech with the emancipation of the slaves, issued by Abraham Lincoln, and later mentions that after being freed from slavery, blacks are still not free. King claims all men were issued a check and a promise of freedom, yet for Black men and women that check has come back with "insufficient funds." The members of the civil rights union issue a check to America, they return America's unkept promise with one they are sure to keep: the continued pursuit of justice. King, along with his many supporters, demand their freedom now, they demand things to change with a sense of urgency and without procrastination from the oppressor. They do not want to see slow change over time; they would rather see significant change immediately. King roars, "now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." However, King hopes to obtain equality through nonviolent movement. He tells fellow Black people to not have hatred or bitterness in their heart or turn to guns and fists. He knows that violence to obtain peace only leads to an endless cycle of fighting, unnecessary death, and cruelty. Also King believes Blacks must not let this one incident lead them to hate all people of different races and nationalities. He knows that only leads to the same kind of discrimination he is fighting against with his "I have a dream" speech. Black people are not fighting for their own satisfactions, to fight until they feel content with what they have accomplished. Black people are fighting for continuous freedom and equality, not just to be stopped with King's 1963 speech.

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11y ago
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11y ago

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 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. The speech is often considered to be one of the greatest speeches in history and was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address. 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." Legend holds that King departed from his prepared text and began preaching extemporaneously, but he had delivered a similar 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. 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 Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by saying "Five score years ago..." Biblical allusions are also prevalent. For example, King alludes to Psalm 30:5 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 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. King also quotes from Isaiah 40:4 "I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted..." Parallelism, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of sentences, is a rhetorical tool employed throughout the speech. An example of parallelism is found early as King urges his audience to seize the moment: "Now is the time..." is repeated four times in the sixth stanza. The most widely cited example of parallelism 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.

Key quotes"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'"

"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 my four little 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."

"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics - will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

The March on Washington put more pressure on the John F. Kennedy administration to advance civil rights legislation in Congress, but in the wake of President Kennedy's assassination later that year, 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, was the youngest person awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003, the National Parks Service dedicated an inscribed marble pedestal to commemorate the location of King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Because Dr. King did not register the speech for copyright status until approximately one month after its performance, there was controversy regarding the speech's copyright status for some time. This led to a lawsuit, which was settled out of court without establishing whether there is a copyright over the work.

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12y ago

The "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr. was a speech about his dreams for equal rights for African Americans.

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13y ago

It was about little black girls and boys joining hands with little white girls and boys. Also about having a equal right no matter what race.

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14y ago

His speech was about that he wanted white and black people to get along. his dream was that everyone should have equal rights,An Equal Society.

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12y ago

Talking chanting moaning disagreement and etc...

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13y ago

it talks about fareness and epual rights

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