speech of martin luther king i have a dream summary

A Summary and Analysis of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘I Have a Dream’ is one of the greatest speeches in American history. Delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68) in Washington D.C. in 1963, the speech is a powerful rallying cry for racial equality and for a fairer and equal world in which African Americans will be as free as white Americans.

If you’ve ever stayed up till the small hours working on a presentation you’re due to give the next day, tearing your hair out as you try to find the right words, you can take solace in the fact that as great an orator as Martin Luther King did the same with one of the most memorable speeches ever delivered.

He reportedly stayed up until 4am the night before he was due to give his ‘I Have a Dream’, writing it out in longhand. You can read the speech in full here .

‘I Have a Dream’: background

The occasion for King’s speech was the march on Washington , which saw some 210,000 African American men, women, and children gather at the Washington Monument in August 1963, before marching to the Lincoln Memorial.

They were marching for several reasons, including jobs (many of them were out of work), but the main reason was freedom: King and many other Civil Rights leaders sought to remove segregation of black and white Americans and to ensure black Americans were treated the same as white Americans.

1963 was the centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation , in which then US President Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) had freed the African slaves in the United States in 1863. But a century on from the abolition of slavery, King points out, black Americans still are not free in many respects.

‘I Have a Dream’: summary

King begins his speech by reminding his audience that it’s a century, or ‘five score years’, since that ‘great American’ Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This ensured the freedom of the African slaves, but Black Americans are still not free, King points out, because of racial segregation and discrimination.

America is a wealthy country, and yet many Black Americans live in poverty. It is as if the Black American is an exile in his own land. King likens the gathering in Washington to cashing a cheque: in other words, claiming money that is due to be paid.

Next, King praises the ‘magnificent words’ of the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence . King compares these documents to a promissory note, because they contain the promise that all men, including Black men, will be guaranteed what the Declaration of Independence calls ‘inalienable rights’: namely, ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.

King asserts that America in the 1960s has ‘defaulted’ on this promissory note: in other words, it has refused to pay up. King calls it a ‘sacred obligation’, but America as a nation is like someone who has written someone else a cheque that has bounced and the money owed remains to be paid. But it is not because the money isn’t there: America, being a land of opportunity, has enough ‘funds’ to ensure everyone is prosperous enough.

King urges America to rise out of the ‘valley’ of segregation to the ‘sunlit path of racial justice’. He uses the word ‘brotherhood’ to refer to all Americans, since all men and women are God’s children. He also repeatedly emphasises the urgency of the moment. This is not some brief moment of anger but a necessary new start for America. However, King cautions his audience not to give way to bitterness and hatred, but to fight for justice in the right manner, with dignity and discipline.

Physical violence and militancy are to be avoided. King recognises that many white Americans who are also poor and marginalised feel a kinship with the Civil Rights movement, so all Americans should join together in the cause. Police brutality against Black Americans must be eradicated, as must racial discrimination in hotels and restaurants. States which forbid Black Americans from voting must change their laws.

Martin Luther King then comes to the most famous part of his speech, in which he uses the phrase ‘I have a dream’ to begin successive sentences (a rhetorical device known as anaphora ). King outlines the form that his dream, or ambition or wish for a better America, takes.

His dream, he tells his audience, is ‘deeply rooted’ in the American Dream: that notion that anybody, regardless of their background, can become prosperous and successful in the United States. King once again reminds his listeners of the opening words of the Declaration of Independence: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

In his dream of a better future, King sees the descendants of former Black slaves and the descendants of former slave owners united, sitting and eating together. He has a dream that one day his children will live in a country where they are judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

Even in Mississippi and Alabama, states which are riven by racial injustice and hatred, people of all races will live together in harmony. King then broadens his dream out into ‘our hope’: a collective aspiration and endeavour. King then quotes the patriotic American song ‘ My Country, ’Tis of Thee ’, which describes America as a ‘sweet land of liberty’.

King uses anaphora again, repeating the phrase ‘let freedom ring’ several times in succession to suggest how jubilant America will be on the day that such freedoms are ensured. And when this happens, Americans will be able to join together and be closer to the day when they can sing a traditional African-American hymn : ‘Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.’

‘I Have a Dream’: analysis

Although Martin Luther King’s speech has become known by the repeated four-word phrase ‘I Have a Dream’, which emphasises the personal nature of his vision, his speech is actually about a collective dream for a better and more equal America which is not only shared by many Black Americans but by anyone who identifies with their fight against racial injustice, segregation, and discrimination.

Nevertheless, in working from ‘I have a dream’ to a different four-word phrase, ‘this is our hope’. The shift is natural and yet it is a rhetorical masterstroke, since the vision of a better nation which King has set out as a very personal, sincere dream is thus telescoped into a universal and collective struggle for freedom.

What’s more, in moving from ‘dream’ to a different noun, ‘hope’, King suggests that what might be dismissed as an idealistic ambition is actually something that is both possible and achievable. No sooner has the dream gathered momentum than it becomes a more concrete ‘hope’.

In his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, King was doing more than alluding to Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation one hundred years earlier. The opening words to his speech, ‘Five score years ago’, allude to a specific speech Lincoln himself had made a century before: the Gettysburg Address .

In that speech, delivered at the Soldiers’ National Cemetery (now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in November 1863, Lincoln had urged his listeners to continue in the fight for freedom, envisioning the day when all Americans – including Black slaves – would be free. His speech famously begins with the words: ‘Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.’

‘Four score and seven years’ is eighty-seven years, which takes us back from 1863 to 1776, the year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. So, Martin Luther King’s allusion to the words of Lincoln’s historic speech do two things: they call back to Lincoln’s speech but also, by extension, to the founding of the United States almost two centuries before. Although Lincoln and the American Civil War represented progress in the cause to make all Americans free regardless of their ethnicity, King makes it clear in ‘I Have a Dream’ that there is still some way to go.

In the last analysis, King’s speech is a rhetorically clever and emotionally powerful call to use non-violent protest to oppose racial injustice, segregation, and discrimination, but also to ensure that all Americans are lifted out of poverty and degradation.

But most of all, King emphasises the collective endeavour that is necessary to bring about the world he wants his children to live in: the togetherness, the linking of hands, which is essential to make the dream a reality.

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I Have A Dream Speech

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Summary: “i have a dream”.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream'' speech is one of the most celebrated oratory pieces in American history. King delivered the speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963 as the final speech of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Ruston organized the march to advocate for civil and economic rights for Black Americans, which was among the largest political rallies for human rights in history, attracting approximately 250,000 attendants. Following the speech, King was named Time magazine’s 1963 Man of the Year. A recording of “I Have a Dream” has been added to the United States National Recording Registry, and a line from the speech—“Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope”—is the inscription on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C.

King opens by stating he is happy to join the audience in a demonstration of freedom. Standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, King notes the Emancipation Proclamation was signed 100 years ago but today, Black people are still not truly free as they lack the same material benefits afforded other Americans. The march is designed to draw attention to that fact.

The marchers are there to redeem a promise, to “cash a check” written to Black people by the US government and the Founding Fathers who promised all men were created equal in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. “All men” includes African Americans, yet America failed to deliver on its promise. Instead, it has passed a check that cannot be cashed by Black people. King and the marchers, however, refuse to accept that condition and demand the rights promised them.

The marchers are also there to remind the nation that the present is the time to act. Americans should not fall for the trap of making slow and steady progress. Instead, America must today fulfill the full promise of democracy and racial justice. The summer has been one of discontent, but 1963 is a beginning—not an end. The road ahead will lead to an autumn marked with equality for all people so long as the summer’s protests do not result in a return to the complacency of years past.

King interrupts to warn the audience that the road to freedom must not be laid by bitterness, hatred, or bad behavior—especially violence. Instead, those seeking freedom must hold themselves to a higher moral standard and meet acts of violence with acts of love and faith. It is a good thing Black people are now militant about their freedoms, but they must recognize that there are White people in the crowd who have joined the march and who see their struggle for freedom linked to that of Black Americans. Black people must walk with White people as no one can march alone.

As they march, all must promise to continue marching forward. Many will ask if the marchers will ever be satisfied. The answer is no: They will not be satisfied as long as Black men are victims of police violence, segregation endures, Black people have no upward economic mobility and are disenfranchised. The marchers will not be satisfied until justice and righteousness pour through the nation. 

King turns from the general group (who he has been referring to as “we”) to individual groups (who he refers to as “some of you”). Some present have come from worse struggles than others, some from jails, some from areas in which they have suffered police violence and persecution. But to each of them, King asks them to continue to creatively suffer but to ensure the suffering begets change. He asks them to take that faith back to their home states.

He returns to the group as a whole announcing he still has a dream about the nation. His dream is that America will finally live up to the words of the Founders: “that all men are created equal.” He also dreams White people and Black people will be able to sit down together as equals and Mississippi will be turned from a hotbed of injustice to a land of freedom. He dreams that in the future, people will not be judged by the color of their skin but by who they are as individuals, and that Alabama will be a place where White and Black children can join hands together. With this dream, King will return to the South. And with this dream and this faith, everyone present can transform the nation into one of brotherhood—as long as everyone works together.

One day American children will be able to sing “America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee)” with new meaning, for its lyrics will actually reflect the truth. As a prerequisite for America to become a great nation, freedom must ring across all the majestic landscapes of the United States from New Hampshire to California to Colorado to Tennessee and everywhere in between. And when that happens, “all of God’s children” of all races and faiths will be able to sing the old African American spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

This study guide refers to the transcript published by NPR .

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‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 19, 2023 | Original: November 30, 2017

The “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. before a crowd of some 250,000 people at the 1963 March on Washington, remains one of the most famous speeches in history. Weaving in references to the country’s Founding Fathers and the Bible , King used universal themes to depict the struggles of African Americans before closing with an improvised riff on his dreams of equality. The eloquent speech was immediately recognized as a highlight of the successful protest, and has endured as one of the signature moments of the civil rights movement .

Civil Rights Movement Before the Speech

Martin Luther King Jr. , a young Baptist minister, rose to prominence in the 1950s as a spiritual leader of the burgeoning civil rights movement and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SLCC).

By the early 1960s, African Americans had seen gains made through organized campaigns that placed its participants in harm’s way but also garnered attention for their plight. One such campaign, the 1961 Freedom Rides , resulted in vicious beatings for many participants, but resulted in the Interstate Commerce Commission ruling that ended the practice of segregation on buses and in stations.

Similarly, the Birmingham Campaign of 1963, designed to challenge the Alabama city’s segregationist policies, produced the searing images of demonstrators being beaten, attacked by dogs and blasted with high-powered water hoses.

Around the time he wrote his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King decided to move forward with the idea for another event that coordinated with Negro American Labor Council (NACL) founder A. Philip Randolph’s plans for a job rights march.

March on Washington

Thanks to the efforts of veteran organizer Bayard Rustin, the logistics of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom came together by the summer of 1963.

Joining Randolph and King were the fellow heads of the “Big Six” civil rights organizations: Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Whitney Young of the National Urban League (NUL), James Farmer of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Other influential leaders also came aboard, including Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Joachim Prinz of the American Jewish Congress (AJC).

Scheduled for August 28, the event was to consist of a mile-long march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, in honor of the president who had signed the Emancipation Proclamation a century earlier, and would feature a series of prominent speakers.

Its stated goals included demands for desegregated public accommodations and public schools, redress of violations of constitutional rights and an expansive federal works program to train employees.

The March on Washington produced a bigger turnout than expected, as an estimated 250,000 people arrived to participate in what was then the largest gathering for an event in the history of the nation’s capital.

Along with notable speeches by Randolph and Lewis, the audience was treated to performances by folk luminaries Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and gospel favorite Mahalia Jackson .

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech Origins

In preparation for his turn at the event, King solicited contributions from colleagues and incorporated successful elements from previous speeches. Although his “I have a dream” segment did not appear in his written text, it had been used to great effect before, most recently during a June 1963 speech to 150,000 supporters in Detroit.

Unlike his fellow speakers in Washington, King didn’t have the text ready for advance distribution by August 27. He didn’t even sit down to write the speech until after arriving at his hotel room later that evening, finishing up a draft after midnight.

‘Free At Last’

As the March on Washington drew to a close, television cameras beamed Martin Luther King’s image to a national audience. He began his speech slowly but soon showed his gift for weaving recognizable references to the Bible, the U.S. Constitution and other universal themes into his oratory.

Pointing out how the country’s founders had signed a “promissory note” that offered great freedom and opportunity, King noted that “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.'”

At times warning of the potential for revolt, King nevertheless maintained a positive, uplifting tone, imploring the audience to “go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.”

Mahalia Jackson Prompts MLK: 'Tell 'em About the Dream, Martin'

Around the halfway point of the speech, Mahalia Jackson implored him to “Tell ’em about the ‘Dream,’ Martin.” Whether or not King consciously heard, he soon moved away from his prepared text.

Repeating the mantra, “I have a dream,” he offered up hope 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” and the desire to “transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”

“And when this happens,” he bellowed in his closing remarks, “and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'”

7 Things You May Not Know About MLK’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech ranks among the most famous in history, but there are a few lesser‑known facts about the 1963 moment.

Civil Rights Movement Timeline

The civil rights movement was an organized effort by black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. It began in the late 1940s and ended in the late 1960s.

An Intimate View of MLK Through the Lens of a Friend

“Outside of my immediate family, his was the greatest friendship I have ever known or experienced,” photographer Flip Schulke said of Martin Luther King Jr.

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech Text

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence , they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men, yes, Black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check—a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"

We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only."

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, 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 one day on the red hills of Georgia the 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 with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exhalted [sic], every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

MLK Speech Reception

King’s stirring speech was immediately singled out as the highlight of the successful march.

James Reston of The New York Times wrote that the “pilgrimage was merely a great spectacle” until King’s turn, and James Baldwin later described the impact of King’s words as making it seem that “we stood on a height, and could see our inheritance; perhaps we could make the kingdom real.”

Just three weeks after the march, King returned to the difficult realities of the struggle by eulogizing three of the girls killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

Still, his televised triumph at the feet of Lincoln brought favorable exposure to his movement, and eventually helped secure the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 . The following year, after the violent Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama, African Americans secured another victory with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 .

Over the final years of his life, King continued to spearhead campaigns for change even as he faced challenges by increasingly radical factions of the movement he helped popularize. Shortly after visiting Memphis, Tennessee, in support of striking sanitation workers, and just hours after delivering another celebrated speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” King was assassinated by shooter James Earl Ray on the balcony of his hotel room on April 4, 1968.

'I Have a Dream' Speech Legacy

Remembered for its powerful imagery and its repetition of a simple and memorable phrase, King’s “I Have a Dream” speech has endured as a signature moment of the civil rights struggle, and a crowning achievement of one of the movement’s most famous faces.

The Library of Congress added the speech to the National Recording Registry in 2002, and the following year the National Park Service dedicated an inscribed marble slab to mark the spot where King stood that day.

In 2016, Time included the speech as one of its 10 greatest orations in history.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Watch acclaimed Black History documentaries on HISTORY Vault.

“I Have a Dream,” Address Delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute . March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. National Park Service . JFK, A. Philip Randolph and the March on Washington. The White House Historical Association . The Lasting Power of Dr. King’s Dream Speech. The New York Times .

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Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the March on Washington. AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the March on Washington.

Monday marks Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Below is a transcript of his celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. NPR's Talk of the Nation aired the speech in 2010 — listen to that broadcast at the audio link above.

Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders gather before a rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington. National Archives/Hulton Archive via Getty Images hide caption

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.

Code Switch

The power of martin luther king jr.'s anger.

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men — yes, Black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

Martin Luther King is not your mascot

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

Civil rights protesters march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. Kurt Severin/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

Throughline

Bayard rustin: the man behind the march on washington (2021).

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: for whites only.

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

How The Voting Rights Act Came To Be And How It's Changed

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, 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.

People clap and sing along to a freedom song between speeches at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Express Newspapers via Getty Images hide caption

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the 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 with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

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This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.

Correction Jan. 15, 2024

A previous version of this transcript included the line, "We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now." The correct wording is "We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now."

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I Have a Dream Speech

Martin luther king, jr..

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have a Dream Speech . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

I Have a Dream Speech: Introduction

I have a dream speech: plot summary, i have a dream speech: detailed summary & analysis, i have a dream speech: themes, i have a dream speech: quotes, i have a dream speech: characters, i have a dream speech: symbols, i have a dream speech: literary devices, i have a dream speech: theme wheel, brief biography of martin luther king, jr..

Historical Context of I Have a Dream Speech

Other books related to i have a dream speech.

• Full Title: “I Have a Dream”
• When Written: Early 1960s
• When Published: King delivered versions of “I Have a Dream” in North Carolina in 1962 and in Detroit in June of 1963 before delivering the definitive version of the speech at the March on Washington on August 28th, 1963
• Literary Period: civil rights movement
• Genre: Speech, religious sermon
• Climax: King begins calling for freedom to ring out across America, from the “mighty mountains of New York” to the “molehill[s] of Mississippi”
• Point of View: First person

Extra Credit for I Have a Dream Speech

Ringing Into the Future. On August 28th, 2013—the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington—thousands of people gathered on the mall in Washington D.C. where King delivered his iconic speech to celebrate and commemorate the occasion. President Barack Obama spoke at the gathering. Obama paid homage to King while reminding those in attendance that King’s dream was still not yet complete, and that the work of justice and anti-racism is complex and ongoing.

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I Have a Dream

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• Yale Law School - Lillian Goldman Law Library - The Avalon Project - I have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr; August 28, 1963
• Stanford University - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute - "I Have a Dream"
• NPR - Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety
• Marshall University - OneMarshallU - "I Have A Dream"
• Teach Tennessee History - "I Have a Dream..."
• Library of Congress - “I Have a Dream” Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (August 28, 1963)
• The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - “I Hav e a Dream ” Speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the “March on Washington,” 1963
• U.S. Embassy & Consulate in the Republic of Korea - Martin Luther King, Jr. : I Have a Dream Speech (1963)

Recent News

I Have a Dream , speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. , that was delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington . A call for equality and freedom , it became one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement and one of the most iconic speeches in American history.

Some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. , for the March on Washington. The one-day event both protested racial discrimination and encouraged the passage of civil rights legislation; at the time, the Civil Rights Act was being discussed in Congress. The march featured various speeches as well as musical performances before King, a celebrated orator, appeared as the final official speaker; A. Philip Randolph and Benjamin Mays ended the proceedings with a pledge and a benediction , respectively.

Early in his prepared speech, King referenced Abraham Lincoln ’s Gettysburg Address with “Five score years ago….” He then spoke about the Emancipation Proclamation , which “end[ed] the long night of their [slaves’] captivity.” However, he continued by noting that African Americans were still “not free” and that they were “crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.”

According to various observers, however, as King neared the end, the address was failing to achieve the resonance of his more noteworthy speeches. As activist John Lewis noted, King himself could “sense that he was falling short.” Perhaps that compelled singer Mahalia Jackson to call out, imploring him to tell the crowd about “the dream.” It was a theme he had used at earlier events but had been advised not to use in Washington, with one aide calling it “trite.” At Jackson’s urging, however, King abandoned his prepared text and launched into a discussion of his dreams, adopting “the stance of a Baptist preacher.”

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.…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. I have a dream that…one day right there in Alabama, little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

King’s improvisations seemed to strike a chord with the crowd, many of whom called out words of encouragement. The speech built to its emotional conclusion , which was borrowed from a Black spiritual : “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.” Largely based on King’s extemporizations, the speech was widely considered the greatest of the 20th century, noted for its power and resonance. With its universal appeal, “I have a dream” became an enduring phrase both in the United States and elsewhere. In addition, many believed the speech helped secure passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

I have a dream

By Martin Luther King Jr.

‘I have a dream’ by Martin Luther King Jr. is a public speech the civil rights activist delivered on August 28th, 1963. In it, he called for an end to racism in the United States and all its related policies. 

Martin Luther King Jr.

His writings and speeches about the Civil Rights movement are studied worldwide and honored to this day.

Poem Analyzed by Emma Baldwin

B.A. English (Minor: Creative Writing), B.F.A. Fine Art, B.A. Art Histories

The ‘I have a dream’ speech was delivered to 250,000 supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Today, the ‘ I have a dream ’ speech is acknowledged as one of the defining and shining moments of the Civil Rights movement and as a masterpiece of public speaking. It is constantly quoted and used as continual inspiration as the fight for equal rights continues in the United States and around the world.  

Explore I have a dream speech

• 1 Summary 
• 3 Structure and Form
• 4 Literary and Rhetorical Devices 
• 5 Famous Quotes from the I have a dream speech
• 6 Detailed Analysis 

Summary  

‘I have a dream’ by Martin Luther King Jr. is a powerful rhetorical call for equal rights for all American people regardless of their race. It is a continual source of inspiration for those fighting to continue what the Civil Rights movement began.

In the first lines of this famed speech, King discusses the Emancipation Proclamation. That is the speech that freed the slaves in 1863, one hundred years in the past. Now, he stated, still, “the Negro is…not free.” He also references the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, reminding all those listening that America is supposed to be the land of the free. But, in America today, freedom hasn’t been achieved. The phrase “I have a dream” is used numerous times throughout the piece. He says that the United States needs to make immediate changes, or the protests will only heighten. He also says that the Black community will never be satisfied until they are granted full and equal rights with white Americans.  

Throughout this piece, King engages with themes of freedom, justice, and the future. He acknowledges the past and present as a way of alluding to the promise of the future. His determination that no one rests until all people are truly equal comes through in his calls for justice and freedom.  

Structure and Form

‘I have a dream’ by Martin Luther King Jr. is an incredibly important text to study for those interested in understanding the Civil Rights movement and this specific pivotal moment. It was delivered in around seventeen minutes, using numerous rhetorical devices that are noted below. King uses repetition , seen through instances of anaphora and epistrophe , to drive home his poems. In this analysis, the speech has been separated into six sections. These are not sections created or noted by King. Instead, they’re used in this analysis to make the poem easier to analyze and understand.  

Literary and Rhetorical Devices  

Throughout the speech, King uses numerous literary and rhetorical devices in order to deliver the most effective speech possible. For example:  

• Ethos : used in an argument by appealing to the audience through the speaker ’s credibility. King, as a Black man living in the United States, and working within the Civil Rights Movement, is in an ideal position in order to speak about what the contemporary American experience is like. King also uses the other modes of persuasion , logos , and pathos .
• Anaphora : the use of the same word or words at the beginning of multiple lines, in succession. Throughout the speech, King repeats “I have a dream” eight times, successively, at the beginning of lines. “One hundred years later” is another example, appearing at the beginning of numerous phrases early on in the speech. “Now is the time,” “Go back to,” “With this faith,” and “We can never (or cannot) be satisfied” are all other phrases that begin multiple lines.
• Allusion : throughout this piece, King alludes to prior American history, important political moments, and contemporary events. The latter includes protests that he was famously a part of. He uses phrases like “Five score years ago” as a reference to the Gettysburg Address and “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” is an allusion to the Lincoln Memorial. There are also biblical allusions scattered throughout the speech. Such as “It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity” which comes from Psalms 30:5
• Repetition : in addition to examples of anaphora, there are other kinds of repetition in King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech. For example, repeated phrases, references, and calls to action. He also repeats common themes. These include: freedom, justice, and the power of dreams.  
• Imagery : another powerful rhetorical and literary device. It occurs when the speaker uses phrases that appeal to and trigger the listener’s senses. For example, “slums and ghettos of our northern cities,” a phrase that also alludes to the contemporary moment King is living through.  
• Metaphor : comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things that do not use “like” or “as.” For example, in the second paragraph of the speech, King uses the phrase “joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.” Here, he’s connecting Black American’s social and political restrictions and the racisms that still plagues the country to a “long night of captivity.” When freedom is truly given to all people it will be a “joyous daybreak” and end to that night. Another example can be found in paragraph 19, in which he uses the phrase “sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.” Here, oppression is compared to “heat” and freedom and justice to “an oasis.” He’s using imagery in this metaphor to evoke the beauty of one state of being and the pain or another.
• Alliteration : the use of the same consonant sounds at the beginning of words. For example, King uses “trials and tribulations,” “dark and desolate,” “sweltering summer,” and “marvelous new militancy.”  

Famous Quotes from the I have a dream speech

Below, readers can find a few of the most famous quotes from this speech.

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.

In this quote, King is starting the most famous section of his speech in which he uses “I have a dream” at the start of several lines. He is looking into the future and envisioning a life for his children that’s different than his own.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back.

Here, King acknowledges that while there is power in the numbers they have, it is important that the Black community does not walk alone. There are people of all races in the audience, men and women, who support their movement. It’s crucial that they accept their support and do not allow bitterness to drive them.

When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

These are the final lines of the ‘I have a dream’ speech. In this paragraph, King uses anaphora to emphasize the way that freedom is going to travel through the country, bringing men and women together. All races and religions will one day join hands and be able to sing out “Free at last!”

We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

This line is King’s answer to the question of “When will you be satisfied?” That is, when will the Civil Rights movement be content with the freedoms it gained the Black community. His answer is eloquently phrased and spans more than just this one line.

Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

Here, King brings in one of the running metaphors that can be found in the speech. That is, the use of the sun as an image of hope and the future, as well as darkness as one of oppression and the past.

Detailed Analysis  

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. […] It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

The first lines of the speech contain King’s initial address to the audience, numerous metaphors, allusions, and examples of repetition that bring in the most important themes of the speech, justice, and freedom. He speaks about the “Constitution and the Declaration of Independence” and the “architects of our republic” thought when they wrote them. They promised that “all men” were “guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  

In this line, it’s interesting to note the moment at which King pauses and says, “all men, yes, black men as well as white men,” in order to confirm before anyone has a chance to second guess him. These political documents gave men of all color the same rights. This is a great example of a more colloquial moment in the speech.  There is a great example of a metaphor in these lines at the end of this section. It reads: “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”’  

Part II  

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. […] will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

In this section of the speech, King uses some of the same examples of literary devices seen above. This includes anaphora. It is seen through the use of “Now is the time” in paragraph three. The repetition of this phrase is a call to action, inspiring the audience and reminding anyone listening that “Now is the time” that the past ends and that a new future starts. The image of “heat” comes into play with King using phrases like “This sweltering summer.” Other natural images are also used, like “blow off steam,” “whirlwinds,” and “bright day.” These all allude to what the next stage in American justice and freedom is going to look like.  

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the worn threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. […] There are those who are asking the devotees of Civil Rights, “When will you be satisfied?”

In the next lines of the speech, he reminds those listening, his “people,” that they must stay on the correct path as they seek justice. It’s important that they do not “drink…from the cup of bitterness and hatred” and instead “conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.” These beautiful lines bring in the fact that there are many who support King’s desire for a new world of freedom, black and white. Knowing how hard this fight is going to be, it’s important that “We cannot walk alone,” King says. One of the most famous quotes from the speech follows.  

We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality; we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities; we cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one;   […] the sons of former slaveowners 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 with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

The next lines are some of the most commonly quoted for the speech. King asks a question that he proceeds to answer. When will they be satisfied? He determines that they won’t be satisfied as long as “the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality” and “we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.” He brings in several more phrases that lay out the goals of his speech and the entire Civil Rights movement. In the brighter future, he imagines, these are things that are no longer going to be a concern.

In another powerful part of the speech, King tells those listening to go home and not “wallow in the valley of despair.” Instead, “Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.” He tells them to “Go” back to their respective states, Georgia, South Carolina, etc.

Part V  

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. I have a dream today! […] With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brother-hood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day.

The next section contains the repetitions of “I have a dream,” truly the most famous section of the speech. King emphasizes that he has a “dream” that the future is going to be different and that one day his children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” and that “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” These images of hope are juxtaposed with the difficulty of the present moment. For example, with this description of the Governor of Alabama and others in the state: “with its vicious racists, with its Governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification.”  

Part VI  

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, […]   we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”

In the final lines of the speech, King says that today is the day when “all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning” when they sing the lines of the national anthem. He repeats “Let freedom ring” in reference to various places around the country, uniting those listening in a common goal and reminding the audience of his desire to have all of God’s children stand and “join hands and sing.” The final line comes from “the old Negro spiritual” that encompasses the passion of the Civil Rights movement: “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”  

On August 28th, 1963. It was delivered to 250,000 supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

It brought the Civil Rights movement into the public spotlight and made King a public figure. It may have hastened the passing of the Civil Rights Act .

He wrote and delivered the speech in order to call for an end to social and economic racism in the United States.

King’s main message is that all people are created equal and that although they aren’t treated as such in the United States at the moment, it’s important that everyone continue working towards that goal.

King was a Baptist minister and social rights activist. He was a leader of the Civil Rights movement in the ’50s and ’60s in the United States. He organized the March on Washington in 1963.

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What is it’s phonological feature?

I’d say the refrain acts as a phonological feature as the repetition added a rhythm to what MLK said.

Amazing Job!

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Baldwin, Emma. "I have a dream by Martin Luther King Jr.". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/martin-luther-king-jr/i-have-a-dream/ . Accessed 21 August 2024.

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Freedom's Ring "I Have a Dream" Speech

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Freedom's Ring  is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, annotated. Here you can compare the written and spoken speech, explore multimedia images, listen to movement activists and uncover historical context.

Fifty years ago, in the concluding address of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, King demanded the riches of freedom and the security of justice. Today his language of love, nonviolent direct action and redemptive suffering, resonates globally in the millions who stand up for freedom and elevate democracy to its ideals. How do the echoes of King's Dream live within you?

Freedom's Ring serves as an innovative and thought-provoking resource for teachers, students, and the larger community. Evan Bissell, a Bay Area artist and educator, and webdesigner Erik Loyer worked with King Institute's Dr. Andrea McEvoy Spero,  Dr. Clayborne Carson and Regina Covington to create an engaging experience that documents one of the most famous events in Civil Rights history. Freedom's Ring compliments the King Legacy Series by Beacon Press and the corresponding curriculum guide. 

Martin Luther King Jr. Online I Have a Dream Speech by Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King's Address at March on Washington August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C. "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." – Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream Quote I Have a Dream Speech Background Summary: "I Have a Dream" is a 17-minute�public speech�by�Martin Luther King, Jr.�delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for�racial equalityand an end to�discrimination. The speech, from the steps of the�Lincoln Memorial�during the�March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the�American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters,�the speech was ranked the topAmerican�speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.�According to�U.S. Representative�John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the President of the�Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, "Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations." Speech Title and Performance : Believe it or not, the "I Have a Dream" speech was originally titled "Normalcy, Never Again." and the first drafts never included the phrase "I have a dream". He had first delivered a speech incorporating some of the same sections in Detroit in June 1963, when he marched on Woodward Avenue with Walter Reuther and the Reverend C. L. Franklin, and had rehearsed other parts. The popular title "I have a dream," came from the speech's greatly improvised content and delivery. Near the end of the speech, famous African American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted to Dr. King from the crowd, "Tell them about the dream, Martin." Dr. King stopped delivering his prepared speech and started "preaching", punctuating his points with "I have a dream." : Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. at 1963 March on Washington by USIA (NARA) Source: . Contemporary Reaction: The speech was lauded in the days after the event, and was widely considered the high point of the March by contemporary observers. James Reston, writing for the�New York Times, noted that the event "was better covered by television and the press than any event here since President Kennedy's inauguration," and opined that "it will be a long time before [Washington] forgets the melodious and melancholy voice of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. crying out his dreams to the multitude."[�An article in the�Boston Globe�by�Mary McGrory�reported that King's speech "caught the mood" and "moved the crowd" of the day "as no other" speaker in the event.�Marquis Childs�of�The Washington Post�wrote that King's speech "rose above mere oratory".�An article in the�Los Angeles Times�commented that the "matchless eloquence" displayed by King, "a supreme orator" of "a type so rare as almost to be forgotten in our age," put to shame the advocates of segregation by inspiring the "conscience of America" with the justice of the civil-rights cause. I Have a Dream Copyright Information Deposition of Martin Luther King regarding copyright infringement. Case File Number 63 Civ 2889, Civil Case Files; United States District Court for the Southern District of New York  Download the full deposition (PDF) The I Have a Dream Speech Video is no longer available online, as EMI on behalf of The King Center has ordered it's removal. They will sell you or your school a copy for $10 at at , or you can buy the ($8.97) “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.” – Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream Quote Read in Full: Text and audio of this speech available at: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm Copyright Info: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "I Have a Dream" , which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 . Includes the full speech as well as an introduction to the civil right's movement and circumstances leading up to the famous march on Washington. While Amazon says the reading level is ages 4 and up, this is not an abbreviated version and probably better for older children, adults and teachers reading to students who want illustrations. (Paperback) Also includes his Nobel Prize acceptance speech; "My Trip to the Land of Gandhi"; "A Time to Break Silence," and more. Back to Top | Add to Favorites! Home | Biography | MLK Day | Speeches | Pictures | Audio | Video | Music | Quotes | Store Copyright Info "I Have a Dream" Speech by Martin Luther King Jr. Key Points of the Speech Unkept Promises: Martin Luther King, Jr., begins “I Have a Dream” with a discussion of American history. He points out the significance of the place and time of the protest: the Lincoln Memorial, one century after Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation. King notes the enormous progress set into motion by Lincoln’s proclamation, but states that one hundred years later, black Americans are still not free of segregation, discrimination, and poverty. The country’s founding documents promise all Americans the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” but for black Americans this promise has proven to be a “bad check.” By King’s account, civil rights activists refuse to believe that equality and justice are limited resources, and so have come to cash that check regardless. “The Fierce Urgency of Now”: King emphasizes the importance of making changes immediately. He criticizes slower approaches to social progress and excoriates the “tranquilizing drug of gradualism.” Until the nation addresses the urgent needs of its black citizens, there will be no peace in society. For Black Citizens: King addresses black Americans to discuss the question of how to achieve justice. He asks them to refrain from hatred and violent protest. He encourages them to recognize that some white people support civil rights as well, and that they cannot accomplish their goals alone. King affirms the discontent that his black listeners feel. He acknowledges the difficulties that many of them faced in order to be present at the March, and he describes their suffering as redemptive. He charges them to go back to their home states and neighborhoods armed with hope and wary of despair. Dreams of Freedom and Equality: King describes his dream for the future of the United States. His dream, “deeply rooted in the American Dream,” is that the country will live up to the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence. King draws a metaphor between the equality of people and the leveling of the land, as valleys are raised and mountains made low, “and the glory of the Lord . . . revealed.” He encourages his listeners to return to their homes with renewed faith in civil rights and in the power of his dream, which will motivate them through the hard work ahead. Closing Remarks: King alludes to the patriotic song “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” expanding on the phrase “Let freedom ring.” He calls for freedom to ring across the country—the northern, western, and southern states alike. He concludes with a summation of his dream: for all Americans to be able to say “Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last.” Cite this page as follows: ""I Have a Dream" Speech - Key Points of the Speech." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 20 Aug. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/have-dream-speech/teaching-guide/key-points-speech> See eNotes Ad-Free Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. Already a member? Log in here. Introduction History of the Text Pardon Our Interruption As you were browsing something about your browser made us think you were a bot. There are a few reasons this might happen: You've disabled JavaScript in your web browser. You're a power user moving through this website with super-human speed. You've disabled cookies in your web browser. A third-party browser plugin, such as Ghostery or NoScript, is preventing JavaScript from running. Additional information is available in this support article . To regain access, please make sure that cookies and JavaScript are enabled before reloading the page. I Have A Dream Summary, Notes And Line By Line Analysis In English By Martin Luther King Jr Table of Contents Introduction: ‘I Have A Dream’ is a speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. It was his acclaimed “March on Washington” speech delivered in Washington, 1603. As he himself puts it, it is “the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation (America).” About the Author: The “bad check”:. He begins the speech by referring to how he was giving this speech under a great American’s “symbolic shadow”, referring to Abraham Lincoln. He expresses his distress over how, 100 years later, the Blacks were still oppressed and discriminated against in America, as can be seen from the usage of his word “Negro”. The Fierce Urgency: He beseeches the people to put an end to the eternal, scorching summer the Negroes had to suffer and grant them an “invigorating autumn of freedom”. He asserts that America will know no peace and only revolts until the Blacks received equality, fraternity, and freedom.  No Satisfaction: King states how the Negroes will never be satisfied until they were free of ‘police brutality’, can gain equal accommodation, and their children could lead a dignified life. He declares how they will be satisfied only with equal voting rights and justice prevailed. Putting aside the unspeakable suffering the people were subjected to, he asks them to march on until the goal was attained- equality and freedom. He now talks about his famous ‘dream’. He states that he dreamed of an America where racial discrimination was eradicated and the Blacks and Whites could sit together and dine. He dreams that one day, his four children could live without being judged on the basis of their colour. He dreams that one day in Alabama, children of both races come together and break this oppression imposed by “vicious racists”. Conclusion: This is an inspirational speech by King. His powerful, yet moving words gently coaxed the people of America to see reason, to come out of their mindset clouded by deep-rooted prejudices on the basis of race.  Related Posts: My Storyboards I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is a powerful message to the African American community to be strong and persevere during a time of great inequality in the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most iconic figures of the Civil Rights Movement . For this speech, he addressed 200,000 Americans in Washington D.C and famously desired an America where his children "will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Student Activities for I Have a Dream Essential Questions for "I Have a Dream" Why are non-violent protests more powerful than violent ones? Why is perseverance an important quality for humans to have? King’s “I Have a Dream" speech begins by referencing the Emancipation Proclamation as a “great beacon light of hope” for slaves who were experiencing injustice; despite this hope, King pointed out further work was required for African Americans to be truly free in their own country. King uses the metaphor of a bad check to describe how America has mistreated African Americans, despite the words in the U.S Constitution and Declaration of Independence that grant all people the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. King tells the audience that now is the time to fight for democracy and for brotherhood. There cannot be any quitting because it is just the beginning of the struggle. He reminds his listeners that the fight must be accomplished with dignity and non-violence; people should not resort to violent actions, but remain disciplined and continue to move forward with the ultimate goal in mind. King urges people to continue to have faith and not “wallow in the valley of despair”. He states that even though we experience great troubles, he has a dream that this nation will rise up and become truly equal. One day, all across the United States, there will no longer be injustice or oppression. Buy I Have a Dream on Amazon Related Resources Letter from Birmingham Jail by MLK Black History Activities Martin Luther King Jr. Biography Dreams and A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes How to Encourage Students to Reflect on the Relevance of These Themes in Their Own Lives and Communities. Introduce the speech and themes. Introduce Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and the themes it addresses, such as racial equality, justice, freedom, and unity. Explain that these themes are not limited to the historical context but are still relevant today. Explore Personal Connections Engage students in a discussion about how the themes of the speech relate to their own lives and communities. Encourage them to reflect on instances of inequality, injustice, or challenges they have witnessed or experienced. Promote Critical Thinking Guide students in critically analyzing the current state of their communities in relation to the themes of the speech. Encourage them to consider whether progress has been made, identify ongoing issues, and explore possible solutions or actions. Foster Empathy and Understanding Encourage students to step into the shoes of others and empathize with individuals or groups who face discrimination or injustice. Discuss the importance of understanding different perspectives and experiences to promote a more inclusive and equitable society. Facilitate Personal Reflection Provide opportunities for students to reflect individually on how they can contribute to advancing the themes of the speech in their own lives and communities. Encourage them to consider actionable steps they can take to promote equality, justice, and unity. Encourage Dialogue and Action Facilitate discussions or activities that allow students to share their reflections and ideas with their peers. Encourage them to listen actively, respectfully challenge or expand on each other's thoughts, and collaborate on projects or initiatives that address the themes of the speech in their communities. Frequently Asked Questions about "I Have a Dream", by Martin Luther King, Jr. How can the "i have a dream" lesson plan be integrated into the classroom. The "I Have a Dream" lesson plan can be integrated into various aspects of the curriculum. In English or Language Arts, students can analyze the rhetorical devices and powerful use of language in the speech. In Social Studies or History, the speech can serve as a primary source document for studying the Civil Rights Movement. The lessons on ethos, pathos, and logos can also tie into lessons on persuasion in Media Studies. What skills do students develop with the "I Have a Dream" lesson plan? The "I Have a Dream" lesson plan helps students develop critical thinking skills through analysis of the speech's content and rhetoric. It also enhances their understanding of historical events and social issues, promoting empathy and social awareness. The vocabulary activities support language development, while the exploration of ethos, pathos, and logos introduces them to key concepts in persuasive writing and speaking. Is the "I Have a Dream" lesson plan appropriate for all grade levels? While the "I Have a Dream" lesson plan can be adapted for various grade levels, it's most suitable for middle and high school students who can engage in a deeper analysis of the speech's themes and rhetoric. However, younger students can also benefit from discussions about the speech's central message of equality and freedom. 18whiteOnlySignOnRestaurantAug1938 • Image Editor • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) 20110924 50 Water Fountains for Whites and Colored • davidwilson1949 • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Boycott and picketing of downtown stores: Tallahassee, Florida • State Library and Archives of Florida • License No known copyright restrictions (http://flickr.com/commons/usage/) Civil rights activist Priscilla Stephens being arrested - Tallahassee • State Library and Archives of Florida • License No known copyright restrictions (http://flickr.com/commons/usage/) Civil rights activists arrested - Tallahassee • State Library and Archives of Florida • License No known copyright restrictions (http://flickr.com/commons/usage/) Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking.], 08/28/1963. • The U.S. National Archives • License No known copyright restrictions (http://flickr.com/commons/usage/) Drought • DJ-Dwayne [Returning in 2015/16] • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Emancipation Proclamation, 01/01/1863 (Page 1 of 5) • The U.S. National Archives • License No known copyright restrictions (http://flickr.com/commons/usage/) Freedom • Clearly Ambiguous • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Joachim Prinz pictured, 1963 • Center for Jewish History, NYC • License No known copyright restrictions (http://flickr.com/commons/usage/) Photograph of President Lyndon Johnson Signs the Voting Rights Act as Martin Luther King, Jr., with Other Civil Rights Leaders in the Capitol Rotunda, Washington, DC, 08/06/1965 • The U.S. National Archives • License No known copyright restrictions (http://flickr.com/commons/usage/) Praying Hands • philwarren • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Sit-in at Woolworth's lunch counter: Tallahassee, Florida • State Library and Archives of Florida • License No known copyright restrictions (http://flickr.com/commons/usage/) THE DREAM • jrr_wired • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Wasteland • daniel.stark • License Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Pricing for Schools & Districts Limited Time 10 Teachers for One Year 2 Hours of Virtual PD 30 Day Money Back Guarantee • New Customers Only • Full Price After Introductory Offer • Access is for 1 Calendar Year Limited Time. New Customers Only Back to school special! Purchase orders must be received by 9/6/24. 30 Day Money Back Guarantee. New Customers Only. Full Price After Introductory Offer. Access is for 1 Calendar Year Generating a Quote This is usually pretty quick :) Quote Sent! Email Sent to Sign into Account Register Account Reference Notes Faculties & Levels Subject Notes Notice Board Question Papers Ask Questions Public Articles General Articles Buy & Sell Books Find Colleges I Have a Dream - Summary | The Heritage of Words Martin luther king, jr., love and reminiscence, ecology and change, humour and satire, god and man, human rights, women and children, crime and confession, playing with the text. I Have a Dream Martin Luther King, Jr. Unit: Human Rights Subject: The Heritage of Words Share article, share on social media, the heritage of words. Martin Luther King, a black civil right campaigner, delivered an unforgettable speech ” I Have a Dream” on August 28, 1963, commemorating the centennial of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. In this speech, he presses for equal treatment and improved circumstances for blacks and stresses on the necessity of eradicating institutional racial inequalities. King expresses sharp dissatisfaction over segregation and racial discrimination. He demands a fast end to racial discrimination, pledging his followers to a fight to the finish to wipe out all forms of segregation and to achieve equality and integration. However, he is in favor of a creative and disciplined protest without physical violence. In his speech, he even appeals the Whites to join hands with Blacks in order to revolt against discriminatory practices against Blacks. He does not show hatred against Whites, he is against color discrimination and racial prejudice. He is a dreamer with the vision of equality and justice. He wants a new America in its social makeup, establish symphony of brotherhood among blacks and whites, and eradicate the discriminatory treatment of black Americans. His dream is deeply rooted in the American dream of ‘life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness’. He voices that even after a hundred years of the passing of Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln, America stands as the hell to the blacks. Blacks are exiled in their own country and live in poverty in the vast ocean of material prosperity. He also mentions the words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence which guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. But these magnificent words were not applied into practice in case of colored citizens. He demands the riches of freedom, security of justice, and citizenship rights to the blacks. He argues that the policy of gradualism in the matter of justice will raise discontent among blacks. Important Questions : 1. What is the apparent (exact) purpose of the speech of Martin Luther King Jr.? Explain King’s analogy of the bad check (cheque). Ans. The apparent purpose of King’s speech is to get the black people their rights of freedom, equality, and justice avoiding racial injustice based on the color of skin. Although the constitution of America promises equal rights to its entire citizen, the black people have been deprived of enjoying the rights and get the victim of social segregation and discrimination. Therefore Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers this speech demanding justice for the black people. King makes an analogy (comparison) between promises of an American constitution and a bad check. Though the constitution of America promises equal right rights to the entire citizen irrespective of color and creed, America has failed to pay her black citizen the rights promised in the constitution. They are given bad check i.e. false promises by architects of the American constitution. If there is the insufficient amount in the bank out, the cheque of higher amount issued against this account is not enchased and returned unpaid such cheque is considered as a bad check. Similar way although the constitution of America guarantees equality for all, the black citizens are turned down from getting justice in America. Therefore, the king compares the promises made by the American constitution with a bad check. Questions for Practice : What is the real dream of Martin Luther King about the future of America? What is Martin Luther complaining about? What is the dream Martin Luther King, Jr. has? How is he going to achieve it? You may also like to read: Popular subjects. Meaning Into Words Grade XI Grade xi 1 unit, 19 articles. The Magic of Words Grade xi 6 units, 21 articles. Grade XII 8 Units, 21 Articles Flax-Golden Tales Bachelor's level 13 units, 38 articles. Meaning Into Words Grade XII Grade xii 1 unit, 12 articles. Major English Grade XII Grade xii 5 units, 31 articles. Link English Grade xi 1 unit, 8 articles. Adventures in English Volume II Bachelor's level 7 units, 27 articles. Major English Grade XI Grade xi 4 units, 18 articles. Economics Grade XI Grade xi 17 units, 66 articles. Sabaiko Nepali Grade XI, XII Foundations of Human Resource Management Bachelor's level 9 units, 23 articles. Was Trump's Jan. 6 Crowd Bigger Than for MLK's 'I Have a Dream' Speech? According to the national park service, the march on washington in august 1963 drew an estimated crowd of 250,000 people., jordan liles, published aug. 8, 2024. About this rating During a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago Club on Aug. 8, 2024, former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the crowd during his speech at the Ellipse in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, was larger than the number of people who gathered for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963. However, this assertion was false. According to the available estimates and data for both events, King's crowd size at the very least doubled that of Trump's. The disparity possibly was far greater, as we detail later in this story.  Trump's Jan. 6 speech took place the same day some of his supporters breached the U.S. Capitol to protest the 2020 election results — a protest based on false claims of massive voter fraud. Both inside and outside the Capitol, his supporters engaged in a violent and deadly riot , including the assault of at least 140 law enforcement officers . We emailed Trump's campaign to ask for evidence regarding his claim but did not receive a response within several hours. Trump's Answer Featured False Claims About the Capitol Riot During the news conference at Trump's club, an unidentified reporter in the room asked him about remarks he made minutes earlier, saying, "Mr. President, you just said that there was a peaceful transfer of power last time when you left office." The reporter mentioned the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, and asked, "How is that peaceful transfer of power?" During Trump's answer, he claimed, "Nobody was killed on Jan. 6." According to information previously reported by The New York Times , Fox News and FactCheck.org , among other outlets, such a statement is false. Then, Trump said he spoke the words " peacefully and patriotically " during his speech regarding his supporters' demonstrations, omitting the fact he repeatedly and baselessly told his supporters the 2020 election would feature massive voter fraud. He also neglected to mention that he told his crowd on Jan. 6 that he would walk to the Capitol with them, then didn't. Trump told the same crowd on the Ellipse, among other similar remarks, "We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." Further, regarding a peaceful transfer of power, Trump failed to attend the inauguration of his successor, U.S. President Joe Biden. Trump's answer to the reporter continued with him speaking about his supporters who participated in the Capitol riot — people who seemingly believed his false claims about massive voter fraud. Trump himself repeated those untrue claims to his supporters for months leading up to the 2020 election, before inviting those supporters for his Jan. 6 rally. He told the reporter, "I think that the people of Jan. 6 were treated very unfairly and, they were there to complain, not through me. They were there to complain about an election." Trump's Jan. 6 Crowd Size Claims Continuing with his answer, Trump mentioned the size of the crowd for his Jan. 6 speech: The biggest crowd I've ever spoken to … I was in, at the Mall. I was at the Washington Monument. I was at the whole thing. I had crowds, I don't know who's ever had a bigger crowd than I had, but I had it many times. The biggest crowd I've ever spoken before was that day. And I'll tell you, it's very hard to find a picture of that crowd. You see the picture of a small number of people relatively going to the Capitol. But you never see the picture of the crowd, the biggest crowd I've ever spoken, I've spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody's spoken to crowds bigger than me. His remark claiming that "it's very hard to find a picture of that crowd" was not entirely true. In fact, the official Trump account @TeamTrump on X posted a photo ( archived ) aiming to show a glimpse at the day's crowd size, taken before the start of his rally and showing the Washington Monument, near the site of Trump's speech on the Ellipse. The post read, "This is what Democracy looks like." Reuters photojournalist Carlos Barria captured a wider picture of the same portion of the crowd taken at an unknown time on the day of the rally. The New York Times published a large version of the same photo. Near the end of Trump's answer at his club, he compared his speech's crowd size to that of King's "I Have a Dream" speech. King delivered his famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. Trump told reporters: If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate. Same everything. Same number of people, if not, we had more. And they said, "He had a million people," but I had 25,000 people. But when you look at the exact same picture, and everything's the same, because it was the fountains, the whole thing, all the way back from Lincoln to Washington. And you look at it, and you look at the picture of his crowd, my crowd, we actually had more people. They said I had 25,000 and he had a million people. And I'm ok with it because I liked Dr. Martin Luther King. Crowd Estimates for 1963's March on Washington The March on Washington in 1963 drew crowds estimated at more than 200,000 people. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University published the number of "more than 200,000 demonstrators." The National Park Service reported "an estimated 250,000 people" attended the march. Meanwhile, the NAACP said "the rally drew over 260,000 people from across the nation." The Getty Images image-licensing websites hosts several historical photos showing the massive gathering on the day of King's speech. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. waves to supporters on Aug. 28, 1963, on the Mall in Washington. (Image courtesy Getty Images) One photo displays a high-angle view of the crowd. (Image courtesy Kurt Severin/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Trump's Crowd Size Estimates for Jan. 6 As for Trump's speech on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, no credible estimates came close to that of King's. The Washington Post reported Trump's crowd size simply as "thousands of supporters amassed on the Ellipse near the White House." The New York Times reported "tens of thousands of Trump supporters" gathered in Washington for the rally. The Times also noted of Trump's remark at Mar-a-Lago in August 2024 that the House Jan. 6 committee estimated his speech drew a crowd of "approximately 53,000 supporters."  Prior to Trump's Jan. 6 speech, the pro-Trump group Women for America First requested from the National Park Service a permit for the Ellipse, including upping its estimate of rally attendees on Jan. 3 from 5,000 to 30,000. The NPS stopped publicly providing crowd estimates for gatherings around the National Mall after a controversy involving the Million Man March in 1995. The Associated Press reported on the day after Trump's speech and the Capitol riot that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy " said law enforcement's intelligence estimates of the potential crowd size in the run-up to the protests 'were all over the board,' from a low of 2,000 to as many as 80,000." "187 MINUTES OF DERELICTION." Govinfo.gov , https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-REPORT/pdf/GPO-J6-REPORT-2-7.pdf#page=10. Broadwater, Luke. "Jan. 6 Rally Organizers Lied About Plan to March to the Capitol, Report Finds." The New York Times , 18 Dec. 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/18/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-rally-report.html. Bump, Philip. "Trump Is Mad the Media Isn't Covering the Real Story from Jan. 6: Crowd Size." The Washington Post , 10 Jan. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/10/trump-is-mad-media-isnt-covering-real-story-jan-6-crowd-size/. Cameron, Chris. "These Are the People Who Died in Connection With the Capitol Riot." The New York Times , 5 Jan. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-deaths.html. Demirjian, Karoun. "Inside the Capitol Siege: How Barricaded Lawmakers and Aides Sounded Urgent Pleas for Help as Police Lost Control." The Washington Post , 9 Jan. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-capitol-siege/2021/01/09/e3ad3274-5283-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html. Farley, Robert. "How Many Died as a Result of Capitol Riot?" FactCheck.Org , 1 Nov. 2021, https://www.factcheck.org/2021/11/how-many-died-as-a-result-of-capitol-riot/. Jacobo, Julia. "This Is What Trump Told Supporters before Many Stormed Capitol Hill." ABC News , 7 Jan. 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-told-supporters-stormed-capitol-hill/story?id=75110558. Jalonick, Mary Clare. "FACT FOCUS: Trump's Misleading Claims about the Jan. 6, 2021, Attack on the Capitol." The Associated Press , 5 July 2024, https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-fact-check-trump-biden-rioters-0b3406e02c86bd057e15c9d8c16ccd51. Javaid, Maham. "What Are Magnetometers, or Mags?" The New York Times , 29 June 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/us/what-are-magnetometers-mags.html. Lee, Jessica. "Did Trump Tell Supporters to Storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021?" Snopes , 6 Jan. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-speech-jan6/. "LIVE: Trump's First Press Conference since Harris Picked Walz (FULL STREAM)." YouTube , The Associated Press, 8 Aug. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma_xCjJHdFc. "Live Updates: Trump and Harris Have Agreed to Participate in a Presidential Debate on Sept. 10." The Associated Press , 8 Aug. 2024, https://apnews.com/live/trump-harris-vp-pick-election-updates. Long, Colleen, et al. "Capitol Police Rejected Offers of Federal Help to Quell Mob." The Associated Press , 7 Jan. 2021, https://apnews.com/article/capitol-police-reject-federal-help-9c39a4ddef0ab60a48828a07e4d03380. "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (U.S. National Park Service)." National Park Service , https://www.nps.gov/articles/march-on-washington.htm. Morrison, Aaron. "At March on Washington's 60th Anniversary, Leaders Seek Energy of Original Movement for Civil Rights." The Associated Press , 23 Aug. 2023, https://apnews.com/article/march-on-washington-mlk-dream-speech-sharpton-062039daf026d65cbbae914456ba0543. Naylor, Brian. "Read Trump's Jan. 6 Speech, A Key Part Of Impeachment Trial." NPR , 10 Feb. 2021. NPR , https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial. Nuckols, Ben. "Inaugural Crowds Sure to Be Huge, but How Huge?" The Associated Press , 19 Jan. 2017, https://apnews.com/general-news-united-states-government-7afad98b7d78423cbb5140fe810e3480. Pagones, Stephanie. "DC Police Identify Capitol Hill Riot Victims Who Suffered Fatal 'Medical Emergencies' during Unrest." Fox News , 7 Jan. 2021, https://www.foxnews.com/us/police-capitol-hill-medical-emergencies-deaths. Qiu, Linda. "Trump Claims Jan. 6 Crowd Rivaled the 1963 March on Washington. Estimates Say Otherwise." The New York Times , 8 Aug. 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/08/us/politics/trump-jan-6-mlk-crowds.html. Rabinowitz, Hannah, et al. "US Attorney Says Untold Number of Police Officers Injured While Protecting Capitol on January 6 | CNN Politics." CNN , 4 Jan. 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/04/politics/january-6-prosecutions-justice-department/index.html. "Review of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Actions Related to January 6, 2021." Office of the Inspector General for U.S. Department of the Interior , 18 Dec. 2023, https://www.doioig.gov/sites/default/files/2021-migration/SpecialReview_Review%20of%20the%20U.S.%20Department%20of%20the%20Interior%E2%80%99s%20Actions%20Related%20to%20January%206%2C%202021.pdf. "Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump Attend a Rally Organized..." Reuters Pictures , Carlos Barria/REUTERS, 6 Jan. 2021, https://pictures.reuters.com/archive/USA-CAPITOL-SECURITY-RC2H2L9L8V2Y.html. @TeamTrump. "This Is What Democracy Looks Like." X , 6 Jan. 2021, https://x.com/TeamTrump/status/1346830582257496065. "The 1963 March on Washington." NAACP , https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/1963-march-washington. "US Election: Trump Tells Protesters in DC 'We Will Never Give up, We Will Never Concede' | FULL." YouTube , Global News, 6 Jan. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBH7ql34Ex0. By Jordan Liles Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016. Article Tags New Hampshire North Carolina Pennsylvania West Virginia Online hoaxes Coronavirus Health Care Immigration Environment Foreign Policy Kamala Harris Donald Trump Mitch McConnell Hakeem Jeffries Ron DeSantis Tucker Carlson Sean Hannity Rachel Maddow PolitiFact Videos 2024 Elections Mostly True Mostly False Pants on Fire Biden Promise Tracker Trump-O-Meter Latest Promises Our Process Who pays for PolitiFact? Advertise with Us Suggest a Fact-check Corrections and Updates Newsletters Get PolitiFact in your inbox. Weekly Email Newsletter Daily Email Newsletter Ask PolitiFact A crowd near the Reflecting Pool listens to Martin Luther King Jr. and other speakers during the March on Washington in 1963. (National Archives/Public domain) Trump’s False crowd comparison with his Jan. 6 speech and the crowd at MLK’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech If your time is short. The House select committee that investigated the events of Jan. 6, 2021, estimated 53,000 people attended President Donald Trump’s speech at the White House Ellipse. The National Archives says 250,000 people attended Martin Luther King's Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. On Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters to "fight" and walk to the U.S. Capitol to pressure leaders not to certify Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. His speech preceded a violent assault on the Capitol. Almost six decades earlier, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his landmark "I Have a Dream" speech from the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that called for racial harmony and civil rights for Black Americans. Now, Trump says the two Washington, D.C., speeches share something else in common: crowd size.  During his Aug. 8 Mar-a-Lago press conference that touched on myriad topics, Trump claimed there was a "peaceful transfer" of power when he left office in 2021. Biden was sworn in as president under heavy security, but the effort to stop the counting of electoral votes two weeks before was unprecedented and brutal .  When a reporter challenged Trump’s "peaceful transfer" framing, Trump answered that "nobody was killed on Jan. 6," which is also wrong . Trump then pivoted to his own remarks to supporters  that day on the White House Ellipse, which is on the South Lawn, facing the Washington Monument. "And, you know, it's very interesting, the biggest crowd I've ever spoken to, and I said ‘peacefully and patriotically,’ which nobody wants to say," Trump said. (Trump also told the crowd on the Ellipse to "fight.") Then he said: "The biggest crowd I've ever spoken to, and you've seen Maggie (Haberman, a New York Times reporter), I was in at the mall. I was at the Washington Monument. I was at the whole thing. I had crowds. I don't know who's ever had a bigger crowd than I have, but I had it many times. The biggest crowd I've ever spoken before was that day, and I'll tell you, it's very hard to find a picture of that crowd. You see the picture of a small number of people, relatively, going to the Capitol, but you never see the picture of the crowd. "The biggest crowd I've ever spoken. I've spoken to the biggest crowds, nobody's spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything — same number of people, if not, we had more. And they said he had a million people, but I had 25,000 people. But when you look at the exact same picture, and everything's the same, because it was the fountains, the whole thing — all the way back from Lincoln to Washington. And you look at it, and you look at the picture of his crowd, my crowd, we actually had more people. They said I had 25,000 and he had a million people, and I'm OK with it because I like Dr. Martin Luther King." A PolitiFact reader asked us to fact-check Trump’s comparison with King’s "I Have a Dream" speech during the 1963 March on Washington. The evidence shows Trump’s Ellipse speech was much smaller than the packed National Mall for King’s address .  A close listener might pick up that Trump offered imagery about the location that doesn’t line up with Trump’s Jan. 6 "Save America" rally, such as that it happened on "the mall," and stretched "from Lincoln to Washington." Those details line up with the Trump administration’s July 4, 2019, "Salute to America," which attracted a larger crowd to the mall. Trump may have conflated the events, and the Trump campaign did not respond to our requests to clarify. In recent years, government agencies have not wanted to validate or debunk turnout for political events. (Trump’s first press secretary made the ridiculously false claim that Trump’s 2017 inauguration drew the biggest inauguration crowd ever.) So, recent estimates, if they are made at all, tend to come from media outlets, sometimes with the assistance of experts using aerial photography and mathematical formulas. The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a planned, peaceful display of unity among several organizations and grassroots activists that had been fighting for civil rights through boycotts and marches. The event included many celebrities and musicians and multiple speeches in addition to King’s speech. The crowd stretched from the Lincoln Memorial, past the Reflecting Pool and toward the Washington Monument. Here is an image of the crowd during King’s speech: A crowd near the Reflecting Pool listens to Martin Luther King Jr. and other speakers during the March on Washington in 1963. (U.S. Information Agency, Press and Publications Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) The National Archives says 250,000 people attended the March on Washington during King’s speech. The U.S. Census Bureau uses a somewhat smaller number of "more than 200,000." Featured Fact-check The NAACP said that the rally drew over "260,000" people from across the country. Trump had repeatedly encouraged his supporters the month before his speech at the Ellipse around noon on Jan. 6 to come for a "big protest" in Washington.  By the time Trump finished his speech, crowds had started to gather outside the Capitol. Estimates are fairly loose, but none exceed King’s turnout.  The New York Times reported that "tens of thousands" of Trump supporters gathered for the rally. The Washington Post said "thousands" had assembled at the Ellipse for the speech.  The House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack put the crowd number at 53,000 , or at most a quarter of the generally accepted size of the crowd during King’s speech. "From a tent backstage at the Ellipse, President Trump looked out at the crowd of approximately 53,000 supporters and became enraged," the House committee found . "Just under half of those gathered — a sizeable stretch of about 25,000 people — refused to walk through the magnetometers and be screened for weapons, leaving the venue looking half-empty to the television audience at home." The day after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The Associated Press that law enforcement’s estimates of the overall crowd size in the protests "were all over the board" from as low as "2,000 to as many as 80,000."  We found several photos from that day, including one Reuters wide-shot image that features the Washington Monument in the background. With the Washington Monument in the background, people attend a rally in support of former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP)   The question that triggered Trump’s crowd-size answer was about Jan. 6, and Trump called it "the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to." But some of the things he said — such as "the exact same picture" and "from Lincoln to Washington" — correlate with features of a different Trump speech on July 4, 2019. The 2019 "Salute to America" event, which draws hundreds of thousands of people each year, honored the military’s branches and featured a military flyover and fireworks. On the Capitol side, many came to hear singer Carole King and Trump was the first president in nearly 70 years to add a speech onto the event.  A crowd at the Reflecting Pool listens to a July 4 celebration hosted by then-President Donald Trump in 2019. (Credit: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) Steve Doig, a professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication who has studied crowd size estimates, told PolitiFact that, the photos show the crowd stretching from the Lincoln Memorial to the end of the Reflecting Pool, but give no hint of how far the crowd extends beyond the trees that line the pool.  We were not able to find crowd estimates from the 2019 event. Describing his speech to supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump said he spoke to the "same number of people, if not, we had more" than King’s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech. The crowd-size comparison is wrong. Credible estimates say many more people attended the 1963 March on Washington during King’s speech than attended Trump’s Ellipse speech. We rate the comparison False.  RELATED: All of our fact-checks of former President Donald Trump on the Truth-O-Meter RELATED: All of our fact-checks of Vice President Kamala Harris on the Truth-O-Meter PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.  Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter Our Sources C-SPAN, Former PResident Donald Trump news conference at Mar-a-Lago , Aug. 8, 2024 U.S. Census Bureau News, The 50th Anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" Speech and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Aug. 28, Aug. 21, 2013  Mapchecking.com search, Aug. 8, 2024 Wikipedia Commons, View of crowd March on Washington , Aug. 28, 1963 Wikipedia Commons, Salute to America , July 4, 2019 National Archives, Official Program for the March on Washington , 1963 U.S. Census Bureau, The 50th Anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" Speech and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Aug. 28 , Aug. 21, 1963  Justice Department, 43 Months Since the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol , Aug. 6, 2024 The New York Times, What are magnetometers, or mags? June 28, 2022 Snopes, Was Trump's Jan. 6 Crowd Bigger Than for MLK's 'I Have a Dream' Speech? Aug. 8, 2024 The NAACP, The 1963 March on Washington , Accessed Aug. 9, 2024  The Associated Press, FACT FOCUS: A look at claims made by Trump at news conference , Aug. 8, 2024 The New York Times, Fact Checking Trump’s Mar-a-Lago News Conference , Aug. 8, 2024 The New York Times, These Are the People Who Died in Connection With the Capitol Riot , Jan. 5, 2022 Reuters Photos, Photo of supporters attending Trump's Jan. 6 rally , Jan. 6, 2021  The Associated Press, Capitol Police rejected offers of federal help to quell mob, Jan. 7, 2021 Politico EE News, Trump wanted crowd size from NPS, but this man nixed estimates , Jan. 27, 2017  House select committee, Report , 2022 PolitiFact, Donald Trump had biggest inaugural crowd ever? Metrics don't show , it Jan. 22, 2017 PolitiFact, A timeline of what Trump said before Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Jan. 11, 2021 PolitiFact, Newsmax host falsely claims ‘only one person died’ at Capitol Jan. 6 , Feb. 9, 2021 PolitiFact, Jan. 6 defendants were armed with guns, other weapons, documents show , July 13, 2021 Email interview, Mike Litterst, spokesperson for the National Mall and Memorial Parks, Aug. 9, 2024 Email interview, Steve Doig, professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Aug. 8, 2024 Browse the Truth-O-Meter More by louis jacobson. Support independent fact-checking. Become a member! Election 2024 Entertainment Newsletters Photography AP Buyline Personal Finance AP Buyline Shopping Press Releases Israel-Hamas War Russia-Ukraine War Global elections Asia Pacific Latin America Middle East Delegate Tracker AP & Elections 2024 Paris Olympic Games Auto Racing Movie reviews Book reviews Financial Markets Business Highlights Financial wellness Artificial Intelligence Social Media FACT FOCUS: A look at claims made by Trump at news conference Trump lashes out at Harris, recommits to a Sept. 10 debate at hourlong news conference Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Copy Link copied FILE - Crowds are shown in front of the Washington Monument during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington. (AP Photo, File) Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks about his ear as he speaks to reporters during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) In his first news conference since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for president, former President Donald Trump said he would debate her on Sept. 10 and pushed for two more debates. The Republican presidential nominee spoke for more than an hour, discussing a number of issues facing the country and then taking questions from reporters. He made a number of false and misleading claims. Many of them have been made before. Here’s a look at some of those claims. CROWD SIZES CLAIM: “The biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken — I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not we had more. And they said he had a million people, but I had 25,000 people.” THE FACTS: Trump was comparing the crowd at his speech in front of the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, to the crowd that attended Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech on Aug. 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial. But far more people are estimated to have been at the latter than the former. Approximately 250,000 people attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which King gave his speech, according to the National Park Service . The Associated Press reported in 2021 that there were at least 10,000 people at Trump’s address. Moreover, Trump and King did not speak in the same location. King spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial , which looks east toward the Washington Monument. Trump spoke at the Ellipse , a grassy area just south of the White House. CLAIM: “Nobody was killed on Jan. 6.” THE FACTS: That’s false. Five people died in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and its immediate aftermath. Pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol that day amid Congress’ effort to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Among the deceased are Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter shot and killed by police, and Brian Sicknick, a police officer who died the day after battling the mob. Four additional officers who responded to the riot killed themselves in the following weeks and months. Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran from San Diego, was shot and killed by a police officer as she climbed through a broken part of a Capitol door during the violent riot. Trump has often cited Babbitt’s death while lamenting the treatment of those who attended a rally outside the White House that day and then marched to the Capitol, many of whom fought with police. DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION CLAIM: “The presidency was taken away from Joe Biden, and I’m no Biden fan, but I tell you what, from a constitutional standpoint, from any standpoint you look at, they took the presidency away.” THE FACTS: There is nothing in the Constitution that prevents the Democratic Party from making Vice President Kamala Harris its nominee. That process is determined by the Democratic National Committee. Harris officially claimed the nomination Monday following a five-day online voting process, receiving 4,563 delegate votes out of 4,615 cast, or about 99% of participating delegates. A total of 52 delegates in 18 states cast their votes for “present,” the only other option on the ballot. The vice president was the only candidate eligible to receive votes after no other candidate qualified by the party’s deadline following President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race on July 21. What to know about the 2024 Election Today’s news: Follow live updates from the campaign trail from the AP. Ground Game: Sign up for AP’s weekly politics newsletter to get it in your inbox every Monday. AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more. THE ECONOMY CLAIM: Suggesting things would be different if he had been in office rather than Biden: “You wouldn’t have had inflation. You wouldn’t have had any inflation because inflation was caused by their bad energy problems. Now they’ve gone back to the Trump thing because they need the votes. They’re drilling now because they had to go back because gasoline was going up to 7, 8, 9 dollars a barrel.” THE FACTS: There would have been at least some inflation if Trump had been reelected in 2020 because many of the factors causing inflation were outside a president’s control. Prices spiked in 2021 after cooped-up Americans ramped up their spending on goods such as exercise bikes and home office furniture, overwhelming disrupted supply chains. U.S. auto companies, for example, couldn’t get enough semiconductors and had to sharply reduce production, causing new and used car prices to shoot higher. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022 also sent gas and food prices soaring around the world, as Ukraine’s wheat exports were disrupted and many nations boycotted Russian oil and gas. Still, under Biden, U.S. oil production reached a worldwide record level earlier this year . Many economists, including some Democrats, say Biden’s $1.9 trillion financial support package, approved in March 2021, which provided a $1,400 stimulus check to most Americans, helped fuel inflation by ramping up demand. But it didn’t cause inflation all by itself. And Trump supported $2,000 stimulus checks in December 2020, rather than the $600 checks included in a package he signed into law in December 2020. Prices still spiked in countries with different policies than Biden’s, such as France , Germany and the U.K. , though mostly because of the sharp increase in energy costs stemming from Russia’s invasion. IMMIGRATION CLAIM: “Twenty million people came over the border during the Biden-Harris administration — 20 million people — and it could be very much higher than that. Nobody really knows.” THE FACTS: Trump’s 20 million figure is unsubstantiated at best, and he didn’t provide sources. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports 7.1 million arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico from January 2021 through June 2024. That’s arrests, not people. Under pandemic-era asylum restrictions, many people crossed more than once until they succeeded because there were no legal consequences for getting turned back to Mexico. So the number of people is lower than the number of arrests. In addition, CBP says it stopped migrants 1.1 million times at official land crossings with Mexico from January 2021 through June 2024, largely under an online appointment system to claim asylum called CBP One. U.S. authorities also admitted nearly 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela under presidential authority if they had financial sponsors and arrived at an airport. All told, that’s nearly 8.7 million encounters. Again, the number of people is lower due to multiple encounters for some. There are an unknown number of people who eluded capture, known as “got-aways” in Border Patrol parlance. The Border Patrol estimates how many but doesn’t publish that number. CLAIM: Vice President Kamala Harris “was the border czar 100% and all of a sudden for the last few weeks she’s not the border czar anymore.” THE FACTS: Harris was appointed to address “root causes” of migration in Central America. That migration manifests itself in illegal crossings to the U.S., but she was not assigned to the border. NEW YORK CASES CLAIM: “The New York cases are totally controlled out of the Department of Justice.” THE FACTS: Trump was referring to two cases brought against him in New York — one civil and the other criminal. Neither has anything to do with the U.S. Department of Justice. The civil case was initiated by a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James. In that case, Trump was ordered in February to pay a $454 million penalty for lying about his wealth for years as he built the real estate empire that vaulted him to stardom and the White House. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a state-level prosecutor, brought the criminal case . In May, a jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex. ___ Associated Press writers Melissa Goldin and Elliot Spagat and economics writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this article. ___ Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck . An earlier version of this story mixed up “latter” and “former” in the third paragraph. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on Aug. 28, 1963, drew a far larger crowd than Donald Trump’s speech near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021. 149 IMAGES Martin Luther King Gave "I Have A Dream" Speech 55 Years Ago The Importance Of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” Speech Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" speech August 28, 1963 Introduction And Summary Of 'I Have A Dream' By Martin Luther King Jr I have a dream by Martin Luther King Jr Summary 56th anniversary of “I Have a Dream” speech COMMENTS A Summary and Analysis of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' Speech By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) 'I Have a Dream' is one of the greatest speeches in American history. Delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68) in Washington D.C. in 1963, the speech is a powerful rallying cry for racial equality and for a fairer and equal world in which African Americans will be as free as white Americans. I Have A Dream Speech Summary and Study Guide Summary: "I Have a Dream". Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream'' speech is one of the most celebrated oratory pieces in American history. King delivered the speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963 as the final speech of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A. I Have a Dream Summary & Analysis Summary. Analysis. Martin Luther King Jr. announces how proud he is to be at the March on Washington—a rally that he believes will be remembered forever as "the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of [the United States].". Martin Luther King is addressing an audience of 250,000 at the 1963 March on Washington. I Have a Dream Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. Plot Summary In his "I Have a Dream" speech, minister and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. outlines the long history of racial injustice in America and encourages his audience to hold their country accountable to its own founding promises of freedom, justice, and equality.. King begins his speech by reminding his audience—the 250,000+ attendees at the March on Washington in August of 1963 ... "I Have a Dream" Speech Summary Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial. The March on Washington was a ... MLK's I Have A Dream Speech Video & Text The "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. before a crowd of some 250,000 people at the 1963 March on Washington, remains one of the most famous speeches in history. I Have a Dream I Have a Dream, August 28, 1963, Educational Radio Network [ 1] " I Have a Dream " is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister [ 2] Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called for civil and economic rights and an end to ... Transcript of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech : NPR Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the March on ... Martin Luther King I Have a Dream Speech Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech text and audio . Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have a Dream. delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. Off-Site Audio mp3 of Address ... the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at [email protected] or 404-526-8968. Image #1 = Public ... I Have a Dream Speech Study Guide Download. Historical Context of I Have a Dream Speech. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to an audience of over 250,000 people at the March on Washington in August of 1963. The march was one of the largest civil rights rallies in American history, and it came at a crucial moment in the decades-long struggle for ... I Have a Dream I Have a Dream, speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., that was delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. A call for equality and freedom, it became one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement and one of the most iconic speeches in American history. March on Washington. Civil rights supporters at the March on ... 'I have a dream' speech Summary 'I have a dream' by Martin Luther King Jr. is a powerful rhetorical call for equal rights for all American people regardless of their race. It is a continual source of inspiration for those fighting to continue what the Civil Rights movement began. In the first lines of this famed speech, King discusses the Emancipation Proclamation. "I Have a Dream" August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered at the 28 August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, synthesized portions of his previous sermons and speeches, with selected statements by other prominent public figures. King had been drawing on material he used in the "I Have a Dream" speech ... Freedom's Ring "I Have a Dream" Speech Freedom's Ring is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, annotated. Here you can compare the written and spoken speech, explore multimedia images, listen to movement activists and uncover historical context. ... The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Web Login Address. Cypress Hall D 466 Via Ortega Stanford ... I Have A Dream Speech I Have a Dream Speech Background. Summary: "I Have a Dream" is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equalityand an end to discrimination. The speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the ... "I Have a Dream" Speech Analysis Analysis. Last Updated September 5, 2023. In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. King applies Aristotle's three modes of persuasion to the case for the civil rights movement and makes use of ... I Have a Dream Speech In the shadow of the statue of Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his now famous "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28th, 1963, as part of the March on Washington. King spoke ... "I Have a Dream" Speech Key Points of the Speech Key Points of the Speech. Unkept Promises: Martin Luther King, Jr., begins "I Have a Dream" with a discussion of American history. He points out the significance of the place and time of the ... I Have A Dream Speech Summary Essay (pdf) A Rhetorical Analysis: of I Have a Dream Essay In Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, King makes use of an innumerable amount of rhetorical devices that augment the overall understanding and flow of the speech. King makes the audience feel an immense amount of emotion due to the outstanding use of pathos in his speech. King also generates a vast use of rhetorical devices including ... I Have A Dream Summary, Notes And Line By Line ... Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968) was an American Baptist minister in addition to being a notable civil rights activist. Interestingly, he happens to be the youngest man for being the recipient of the Nobel Prize. Famous works of his include 'I Have A Dream', 'Why We Can't Wait,' and 'A Knock At Midnight'. Summary: The "bad ... I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is a powerful message to the African American community to be strong and persevere during a time of great inequality in the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most iconic figures of the Civil Rights Movement. For this speech, he addressed 200,000 Americans in ... I Have a Dream The Heritage of Words. I Have a Dream. Martin Luther King, a black civil right campaigner, delivered an unforgettable speech " I Have a Dream" on August 28, 1963, commemorating the centennial of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. In this speech, he presses for equal treatment and improved circumstances for blacks and stresses on the ... PDF Full text to the I Have A Dream speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior h we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "W. hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the ... ENGLISH SPEECH Learn English with Martin Luther King, Jr. in his most famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. - Watch with big English subtitles. Get the... Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" Speech Learn about the political and social context behind Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream" speech, the rhetorical devices that helped its concepts... Was Trump's Jan. 6 Crowd Bigger Than for MLK's 'I Have a Dream' Speech Donald Trump's speech in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, featured a larger crowd than did Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. Trump's false crowd size comparison to MLK's speech Says his Jan. 6, 2021, speech on the White House Ellipse drew the "same number of people," as the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. These Pictures Show The Huge Difference Between Donald Trump And Martin Former president Donald Trump gave a speech today and compared his crowds on Jan. 6 to Martin Luther King Jr.'s crowds when he gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Twitter: @Phil_Lewis_ FACT FOCUS: A look at claims made by Trump at news conference THE FACTS: Trump was comparing the crowd at his speech in front of the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, to the crowd that attended Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial. But far more people are estimated to have been at the latter than the former. Trump compares January 6 crowd to MLK's 'I Have A Dream' audience ... Trump said he drew a bigger crowd on January 6 than Martin Luther King Jr. did in 1963. ... 2021, than King did for his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. "I'll tell you, it's very hard to ... essay homework paper phd project resume review speech study thesis