Witnesses to Dream Speech See a New Hope - The New York Times

MARCH ON WASHINGTON

The August 28, 1963, march on Washington was the most significant and moving demonstration for freedom and justice in the history of the United States.

Washington had never seen a spectacle of the size and grandeur that assembled there. Among the nearly 250,000 people, there were dignitaries and celebrities. But the most stirring emotions came from the mass of ordinary people. It’s here where King read his famous “I have a dream” 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.

I have a dream today!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

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.” [1]

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.’S FINAL ADDRESS

There is more to King’s story, but we must now move forward to April 3, 1968, when he gave his final speech at the Bishop Charles J. Mason Temple in Memphis. It was strangely prophetic.

…every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral. And I don’t think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and then I ask myself, “What is it that I would want said?” And I leave the word to you this morning.

I’d like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.

I’d like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.

I want you to say that day, that I did try to be right on the war question.

I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry.

And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked.

I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison.

I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. [2]

King was assassinated the next day when he was shot in the neck with a rifle while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Hotel.

 

Time magazine designated King as Person of the Year for 1963. On December 10, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize.

[1] The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. – Pages 226-227

[2] The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. – Pages 365-366

This has been the last post about Martin Luther King, Jr. in the series, A Life Worth Living. Next we will talk about Nelson Mandela.