In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. today, I link to MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered August 28, 1963 in Washington, D.C. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
For a transcript of the speech, you can consult the National Archives at this link. It is fascinating to examine the draft of the speech. In particular, the phrase “I have a dream today” isn’t in the draft. He improvised the phrase. He had used it before but it wasn’t in the prepared remarks. In the moment, inspiration came to him and he took the speech to another level. See this interview with Clarence Jones for more on that story.
Martin Luther King called himself a Christian minister had moral failures and didn’t believe in the virgin birth of Jesus so his accomplishments don’t count.
Plus Martin Luther King was a plagiarist.
The year King died was mad. Not only did King and Bobby Kennedy get murdered, but the ’68 Democratic National Convention turned Chicago into an outdoor asylum.
It seemed the whole world had gone insane. I keep reminding myself of that year whenever I start to despair of the country now. It helps. But only a little.
Same; I remember that as well. Although as a near teen, I thought maybe that was normal. I later figured out it wasn’t and that is one reason I believe Trump’s term isn’t normal. I have seen normal and I have seen crazy. I believe I have some experience to use in making comparisons.
I was in high school coming up on 18. Draft age. You can bet I was paying attention.
But today is a different kind of “not normal”.
Thanks for the video and the link to the transcript. It’s nice to see the originals of both at this time of the year when the GOP turns MLK into a conservative Republican who knew his proper place and always said, “Yes, massa,” why the white men walked by.