I Have A Dream
by Martin Luther King Jr.
ANNOTATIONS
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
-- Referring to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address “Four score and seven years ago”
(A score is twenty, “Five score years ago” is 100 years ago)
It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
-- The use of light, dark, day and night. The night being referred to is the reminiscent of the US national anthem.
In a sense we have 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 refers that the money behind that check represents the rights that all Americans including African Americans were promised in those documents.
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.
-- King draws on the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence. The note promised all white and black men would be equal to pursuit happiness.
SUMMARY
Martin Luther King's speech I Have A Dream is an inspirational speech made for the world to hear. The speech is about making a voice for the black people, to the people who were treated unfairly, to the people who were looked down upon, to the people to deserved better.
In a paragraph it was stated that the Negros themselves, people who were living in their own land felt as if they shouldn't be there, but with the speech they are to make a stand. They are to voice out their opinion and the speech is a very revolutionary speech for the black people. They are now fighting for their rights and they will never be stopped unless the rights they deserve is given to them.
Martin Luther King has a very big for the world, that one day the oppressed and oppressor will one day be able to live together in harmony, that there will no longer be discrimination between people not only of colors but for the people in general. His dreams which once felt unimaginable for millions of people back in his days, is now slowly forming into something. Freedom is all he asks, freedom is all of what they ask.
This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
-- King compares the legitimate anger of African-Americans to sweltering summer heat and freedom and equality to invigorating autumn as the season of peace and change.
We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
-- Amos 5:24: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
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.
-- King referred to Mississippi, a state where some of the worst offenses against the blacks had been carried out.
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;
-- A reference to George Wallace, then governor of Alabama where terrorist violence has raged and reared it’s head again with the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, killing four black girls.
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.
-- King paraphrases Isaiah 40:4 which prophesizes what the world will be like when the Kingdom of God is brought to Earth through the Messiah.
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This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
-- King recites the lyrics to an American patriotic song, “My County ‘Tis of Thee”
And when this happens, 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!"
-- King hopes that one day, everyone can rejoice and have their own freedom, just as blacks did when they were originally freed from slavery.
QUESTIONING THE TEXT
OUTLINE
What kind of vision of the future of race relations does Martin Luther King, Jr. portray? How does it compare to current race relations in America?
Why did King chose the word "Dream"?
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I. Martin Luther King's Goal
A. Deliver a speech for his people to gain freedom.
- After a hundred years, his people still aren't getting the fair treatment they deserve.
- His people feels as if they were an exile to their own land.
B. Martin Luther King's reason to fight for his people's rights.
- They were told that the government has 'insufficient funds' which they did not believe so. They too deserve to have financial support coming from the government.
- His people who lives in Mississippi were not given the rights to vote.
C. The dreams of Martin Luther King.
- That the sons of slaves and former slave owners to one day be able to eat together in one table.
- That a state such as Mississippi which could be considered a very toxic place, would be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
- For his children to live in a world where skin color is not a reason to judge.
What does “unalienable rights” mean? What are these unalienable rights?
Why did King include/mention many different places, religions, types of people?