January 11, 2017 The Skanner Page 13
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Speech: The Story behind
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream
By Kam Williams
Special to the NNPA
from the Afro-American
Newspaper
“A great speech is both
timely and timeless. First
and foremost, it must
touch and move its im-
mediate audience… But it
must also simultaneously
reach over the heads of the
assembled to posterity.
The ‘I Have a Dream’
speech qualified on both
counts. It was delivered
in a year that started
with Alabama Governor
George Wallace, standing
on the steps of the state
capitol, declaring ‘Segre-
gation now! Segregation
tomorrow!
Segregation
forever!’
The speech starts, both
literally and metaphor-
“
We learn that ‘I Have a
Dream’ was not the planned
focus of the speech, in fact,
... was substantially impro-
vised on the spot as an after-
thought
ically, in the shadow of
Lincoln, ends with a quote
from a Negro spiritual,
and in between quotes the
song ‘America the Beauti-
ful’ while evoking ‘a dream
rooted in the American
dream’ and drawing ref-
erences from the bible and
Constitution…
Fifty years later, the
speech endures as a defin-
ing moment in the Civil
Rights Movement… This
gripping book unearths
the fascinating chronicle
behind ‘The speech’ and
the revealing events sur-
rounding The March on
Washington.”
-- Excerpted from
Introduction
O
wing agenda. For this
reason, it is rather re-
freshing to find an opus
like this being published
on the 50th anniversary
to remind us of the true
meaning of Dr. King’s
moving remarks.
The author of the book
is Gary Younge, a Black
roadcaster and colum-
nist based in Chicago.
Here, the British-born,
award-winning journal-
ist does a masterful job
of not only dissecting Dr.
King’s words, but of fill-
ing in much of the back
story to the events lead-
ing up to his taking the
podium.
We learn that “I Have
a Dream” was not the
planned focus of the
speech, in fact, that di-
vinely-inspired,
emo-
n Aug. 28, 1963,
Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. delivered
his ‘I Have a Dream’
speech, an unapolo-
getically poetic appeal
for the elusive equal
rights long denied Afri-
can-Americans. Unfor-
tunately, over the years,
the late martyr’s historic
address has all but been
reduced to his wish that
“my four children will
one day live in a nation
where they will not be
judged the color of their
skin but by the content of
their character.”
A half-century later
we find that “content of
character” phrase being
appropriated,
quoted
out of context and will-
fully misrepresented by
arch-conservatives from
Glenn Beck to Herman
Cain in service of a right-
tional crescendo was
substantially improvised
on the spot as an after-
thought. King’s intended
theme merely revolved
around an earnest ex-
planation that blacks had
descended on the District
of Columbia “to cash a
promissory note for life,
liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.”
For, while preparing
his speech on the eve of
the march, King had been
advised by a colleague to
cut out the lines about
his having a dream. “It’s
trite… It’s cliché,” Rever-
end Wyatt Tee Walker
warned.
But, the next day on
the National Mall, as Dr.
King came close to finish-
ing reading from his pre-
pared text, gospel great
Mahalia Jackson started
prompting him to go off
script.
“Tell them about the
dream, Martin!” she
shouted repeatedly, re-
ferring to a familiar
refrain she’d heard her
dear friend eloquently
riff about in sermons
several times before.
Fortunately, Martin did
indeed heed Mahalia, and
began waxing romantic
about his prophetic vi-
sion. “Aw, sh*t, he’s using
the dream,” Reverend
Walker moaned. Yet, as
Coretta Scott King would
recall, “At that moment,
it seemed as if the King-
dom of God appeared.”
And the rest, as they
say, is history.
Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a
crowd from the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial where he delivered his
famous, “I Have a Dream,” speech
during the Aug. 28, 1963, march on
Washington, D.C.