“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. 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.”
Those words still inspire us. Still make chills run along our spines and still make us stand taller with pride.
They were the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the culmination of the historic March on Washington in August 1963 – a truly peaceful protest at our Capitol – an interracial assembly of more than 200,000 who gathered in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal justice for all citizens under the law.
King’s speech, now world famous and dubbed the “I Have a Dream” speech, was intended to be brief, and nowhere on the three-page, type-written copy that King began reading from was the word “dream.”
But several minutes in, the Baptist minister – and son and grandson of Baptist ministers – stopped reading and looked up to those in front of him and to the skies above. He began just talking, preaching, reaching the rainbow of people who had shown up in support of equality in jobs and freedom.