MLK delivered ‘I Have A Dream’ speech 60 years ago at March on Washington

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stood before 260,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

He was the last speaker and planned to talk for four minutes.

He spoke for 16 minutes and strayed from his prepared remarks in what “would become one of the most famous orations of the civil rights movement — and of human history,” according to history.com.

The civil rights leader made the iconic “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.

The march and rally drew about 260,000 people, according to the NAACP. The event was organized by civil rights leaders aimed at outrage over racial inequities. Plans developed, according to history.com, after the violent attacks on civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Ala., in the spring of 1963.

In Birmingham, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference aimed to bring attention to segregation and economic disparities that Blacks faced.

Demonstrators – including children – were met with police dogs and high-pressure fire hoses strong enough to knock them off their feet and tear off their clothing. Demonstrators, including children, were arrested. By midyear in 1963, 2,500 people had been arrested in Birmingham. As the violence escalated, the National Guard was called in. In May, a bomb damaged the hotel where King had been staying. Another bomb damaged the house of his brother.

Rioting ensued with the throwing of bottles and rocks, vehicles being set on fire and the stabbing of several people.

In August, thousands marched in Washington to support the passage of the Civil Rights Act that was stalled in Congress. They wanted “fair treatment and equal opportunity for black Americans.”

Planning for the march was chaired by A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and organized by Bayard Rustin.

Speakers included King, Rustin, NAACP president Roy Wilkins, John Lewis of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, civil rights veteran Daisy Lee Bates and actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.

Music was provided by Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Mahalia Jackson.

According to history.com, King’s planned speech did not include the words “I have a dream.” However, he was urged by Jackson, a gospel singer, to tell the crowd about “the dream.”

This is the part of the speech when King talked about “the dream.”

“So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

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.

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.

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, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

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 said.

King ended the speech with these words – “ … when we allow freedom 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.”

On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On Dec. 10 of the same year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was 35 at the time and was the youngest man to ever receive the prize.

On March 7, 1965, “Bloody Sunday,” the Selma to Montgomery March turned violent when the group tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge as police beat the marchers.

On Aug. 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Three years later, King, 39, was assassinated.

On April 4, 1968, King was in Memphis, Tenn., with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to support a sanitation workers’ strike. He was shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel talking with Jesse Jackson and a musician, Ben Branch.

He was rushed to a hospital but died just a little more than an hour after being shot.

King was killed by a single shot fired by James Earl Ray from a rooming house across the street.

Outrage over his killing resulted in rioting, looting and arson in more than 100 cities in the United States – Detroit, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Newark, N.J., Baltimore, Chicago.

FILE – In this Aug. 28, 1963, file photo the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., center left with arms raised, marches along Constitution Avenue with other civil rights protestors carrying placards, from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. AP Photo, File)AP