Fifty years ago Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech.
By Katherine Jacobsen Contributor / August 28 2013
Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous I Have a Dream speech 50 years ago during the March on Washington.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up live out the true meaning of its creed We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal. I have dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi a state sweltering with the heat of injustice sweltering heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
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Martin Luther King Jr. s speech rolled forward weaving together biblical allusions with words from American canon the Declaration of Independence the Constitution the Emancipation Proclamation and painting the reverend s vision of an America where the principles of equality reigned supreme.
Wednesday s Google Doodle commemorates Dr. King s iconic I Have a Dream speech that took place 50 years ago on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
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Yet while King s famous words I have a dream seem so articulate and well planned they were not part of the leader s original speech.
King and Clarence Jones his speechwriter and friend had prepared a different speech for the March on Washington the first part of which King delivered.
Then Mahalia Jackson a gospel singer near the podium shouted at King Tell em about the dream Martin. Tell em about the dream.
Earlier that summer King had delivered a speech in Detroit that outlined his dream for equality in America and brought the crowd to a feverish pitch according to a report by NPR.
Now most people probably didn t have the slightest idea what Mahalia was yelling to Dr. King Mr. Jones told NPR. What he did upon hearing her words he took the text of the speech the written text that he was reading and he moved it to the left side of the lectern and grabbed the lectern with both hands.
Forty years after King gave his now famous speech the words I have a dream were etched onto the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and eight years after that a memorial was dedicated to the civil rights leader.
This Wednesday 50 years after King rang out words of freedom and equality the first black president of the United States will stand at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and deliver a speech he says won't be as good as King's.
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