50 years anniversary of Keeping the Dream Alive
50 years ago, a vision filled speech was unleashed to transform the Black and Blessed Race
I have a dream !!!
What you might not know about the speech .....
"I have a dream this afternoon that my four little children will not come up in the same young days that I came up within, but they will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not the color of their skin."
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these words in 1963.
King spoke these words in Detroit, two months before he addressed a crowd of nearly 250,000 with his resounding "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs on August 28, 1963.
Several of King's staff members actually tried to discourage him from using the same "I have a dream" refrain again.
As we all know, that didn't happen. But how this pivotal speech was crafted is just one of several interesting facts about what is one of the most important moments in the 20th century in the United States:
MLK's speech almost didn't include "I have a dream"
King had suggested the familiar "Dream" speech that he used in Detroit for his address at the march, but his adviser the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker called it "hackneyed and trite."
So, the night before the march, King's staff crafted a new speech, "Normalcy Never Again."
King was the last speaker to address the crowd in Washington that day. As he spoke, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson called out to King, "Tell 'em about the dream, Martin."
Then he paused and said, "I still have a dream."
Walker was out in the audience. "I said, 'Oh, s---.'"
"I thought it was a mistake to use that," Walker recalled. "But how wrong I was. It had never been used on a world stage before."
The rest, of course, is history.
Other Ten facts about the speech
50 years ago, a vision filled speech was unleashed to transform the Black and Blessed Race
I have a dream !!!
What you might not know about the speech .....
"I have a dream this afternoon that my four little children will not come up in the same young days that I came up within, but they will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not the color of their skin."
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these words in 1963.
King spoke these words in Detroit, two months before he addressed a crowd of nearly 250,000 with his resounding "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs on August 28, 1963.
Several of King's staff members actually tried to discourage him from using the same "I have a dream" refrain again.
As we all know, that didn't happen. But how this pivotal speech was crafted is just one of several interesting facts about what is one of the most important moments in the 20th century in the United States:
MLK's speech almost didn't include "I have a dream"
King had suggested the familiar "Dream" speech that he used in Detroit for his address at the march, but his adviser the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker called it "hackneyed and trite."
So, the night before the march, King's staff crafted a new speech, "Normalcy Never Again."
King was the last speaker to address the crowd in Washington that day. As he spoke, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson called out to King, "Tell 'em about the dream, Martin."
Then he paused and said, "I still have a dream."
Walker was out in the audience. "I said, 'Oh, s---.'"
"I thought it was a mistake to use that," Walker recalled. "But how wrong I was. It had never been used on a world stage before."
The rest, of course, is history.
Other Ten facts about the speech
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