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Section
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January 14, 1998
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929-April 5, 1968
Titles can have a way of misleading people. Certainly this has been the ease with the “I Have a
Dream ” speech by my father, Martin Luther King, Jr. While it is the most well-known, and most
often quoted speech by Dr. King, it is also the most misunderstood. Too often people have
hallowed the portion beginning with “/ Have a Dream ” without giving any credence to the portio
that precedes it. In a real sense, though, "1 Have a Dream" is the sweetener that Dr. King mixed i
to enhance the flavor of his message.
For indeed, the circumstances out of which the message emerged were a bitter reality for the
victims o f social and economic injustice. And so, the “I Have a Dream ” speech is really a messag
of hope, whose effect was to comfort the disturbed, but not without disturbing the comfortable.
In the following pages, you will read this message of hope by Martin Luther King, Jr., on Angus
28, 1963, at the historic March on Washington. / encourage you to remove any blinders that won
prohibit you from experiencing the fid! sense of it, fo r there is a lot to be gained, even thirty-five
years later. The same injustices continue to threaten life in America. Just a those who heeded tin
message then were able to keep striving for freedom, justice, and equality, the same message call
out to those who are willing to continue the quest to overcome the injustices o f the day. After
reading this message of hope, may you be inspired to keep striving fo r the promised land.
-Reverend Bernice A. King
April 1993-