August 28, 1963
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech to an estimated 200,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. Time Magazine reports:
“I have a dream,” King cried. The crowd began cheering, but King, never pausing, brought silence as he continued. “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream,” he went on, relentlessly shouting down the thunderous swell of applause, “that even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with people’s injustices, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.” Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. “I have a dream,” cried King again, “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.”
Full text of the speech (BBC)
(Video of Universal International newsreel: “1963 — March On Washington”)
“The Lasting Power of Dr. King’s Dream Speech.”
New York Times, Aug. 27, 2013.
“Original AP Story on the 1963 March on Washington.”
AP, Republished version posted Aug. 28, 2013.
(Video from Reuters: “50 years after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream,’ the struggle continues”)
“The Speech.”
The Guardian, Aug. 27, 2013.
“‘The moment we’d all been waiting for’: March attendees remember King’s historic ‘dream’ speech.”
NBC News, August 2013.
“Witnessing the Dream.”
USA Today, August 2013.
Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nobel Prizes Website.
The King Center.
Atlanta, Georgia.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute.
Stanford University.
