Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - "I Have A Dream" Speech

The "I Have A Dream" speech by Martin Luther King is remembered as one of the best speeches ever given. His elevated rhetoric calling for racial justice and an integrated civilization became a chant for the black community. His voice became the benchmark for understanding the social and political disruption of the time and gave the nation the words to express what was happening during this time. The key message in his speech is that all people are created equal and, although this was not the case in America at the time, Martin Luther King felt it must be the case for the future. He delivered his speech passionately and powerfully.

Martin Luther King's forum for giving this speech consisted of two components. The first being a call for action. The first half of his speech portrays not an idealized American dream but a picture of a turbulent American nightmare of racial injustice. He emphasizes "now is the time" to bring awareness and raise consciousness to the oppressed black community and inequality. The second component being the resolution or "the dream," for a better future of racial equality,harmony, and integration. His speech had a very strong message for white people and hints at revolution but as a whole the speech was mostly about peace and offering a vision everyone could buy into. At the end of his speech he brings in a unifying closing theme about freedom.