LAD #26

Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr begins his famed speech by acknowledging that the march on Washington will be recorded as the greatest demonstration of freedom in American history. He then takes on a Lincoln-type voice as he states "five score and seven years ago" and begins talking of the Emancipation Proclamation signed during the Battle of Antietam by the president himself. He talks of the proclamation finally freeing blacks from the burdening chains of slavery, but a mere century later they are still not free. In this day and age they are bound by the rules of Jim Crow laws and "Whites Only" drinking fountains, restaurants, bathrooms, and more. Negros, despite slavery no longer holding them down, are now shunned and discriminated against in their own homes. They have been backed into a corner of solitude by the society they were thought to be a part of. Martin Luther King Jr continues by saying how America has broken her long standing promise of equality and a new life, therefore giving Negros country-wide a feeling of frustration towards those who put them in the position they are. He says how all black people want is to have the "security of justice" and to eradicate the discrimination among the color barrier. He takes a shot at those who considered their peaceful march to be Negros simply "blowing off steam" and says that they will neither rest nor back down until they are granted the citizenship they rightfully deserve. People asked when the Civil Rights Movement and those involved in it would be satisfied, to which Martin Luther King JR. replied "we can never be satisfied so long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied." He continues to speak of the great injustice the whites had continually forced upon the black man. He then states that he has a dream of his own that is deeply rooted in the American dream to once again establish the connection between Negros and the country built upon the righteous belief of freedom. "I have a dream," he presses on with one of the most famous lines in all of history, "that one day my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not by judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today." He concludes his speech by commanding not only the audience but those listening who opposed his viewpoint to "let freedom ring" and allowing there to come a time when Negros can finally say that they are free at last once more.