What was the title of King's I have a dream speech?

Answer 1

The original name of this speech was "Free at Last." This is also the finals words of the speech. King thought that since they were the final words they would be remembered most and thus chose to name the speech that. Because the general public remembers "I have a dream," this is what the speech has come to be known as many years later. In my honest opinion it is a disservice to everything that King fought for to keep referring to his speech by the wrong name.

Answer 2

Speeches tend to get named based on their most memorable parts (or on where they were given, e.g. the Gettysburg Address). It appears that King, prior to giving it, may have thought of it as "the Normalcy speech" or "Normalcy, Never Again". The far more widely quoted "I Have a Dream" section was at least partially improvised as a response to a crowd member shouting out "Tell them about the dream, Martin."

Answer 3

The original title of Martin Luther King, Jr's speech on the Washington, DC Mall in 1963 was "The Negro and the American Dream". It has also been called "Normalcy, Never Again".

Answer 4

The speech was titled "Normalcy No More"