Still more generally, the civil rights movement as a whole has acquired a virtually unchallengeable moral authority as 20th-century America’s glorious revolution, a worthy successor to the original American Revolution and a model for further reform movements. Likewise, King himself, in his own day a controversial “extremist” for justice, has become for us an icon of mainstream America, revered across partisan and ideological boundaries and honored by a national holiday and a monument in the nation’s capital not far from Lincoln’s own. The “Dream” speech itself is commonly regarded as a treasure in our rhetorical heritage, unrivalled among 20th-century American speeches.
Envisioning an America whose children could all sing with new and true meaning the proud claim “sweet land of liberty” in its namesake hymn, he brought his speech to its unforgettable crescendo with his refrain: “I have a dream”-a dream not apart from or against, but rather of, from, and for America-“a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”įifty years later, King’s signature speech and his overall career of eloquent activism must be judged an enormous success. King extolled the promise that inhered in Lincoln’s momentous Proclamation and prior to that in “the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.” He confronted the nation with its failure to honor its promise of equal liberty for all, even as he implored his fellow protestors and all of his fellow citizens to understand that their destinies as Americans were indissolubly bound together.
Speaking in the “symbolic shadow” of the most revered American of all, he ascended the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to remind them of the centennial year of Emancipation. history, Martin Luther King, Jr., summoned all of his listeners to think anew about the heritage and promise of America. On August 28, 1963, delivering the culminating address at the greatest mass-protest demonstration in U.S.
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