I Have A Dream Speech

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1973

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Themes

Race and Equality

“I Have a Dream” is first and foremost a speech about race and equality. King’s “dream” is that there will one day be an America in which people are judged “not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” He hopes children will one day be able to play with each other and not be separated by the stains of segregation and prejudice. Only once this dream is realized can the nation and its people truly be free. It’s noteworthy that for King, the dream is not one either reimagining the past or simply moving on; instead, he lists the various scars of racism in American life, for it is crucial for the nation to admit there is racism in order to confront it.

Those scars include Black people being the “victim[s] of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality” and being unable to rent the same hotel rooms or eat at the same restaurants as White people. These horrors cannot be unwritten or merely forgotten, for pretending they don’t exist would prevent the necessary progress and spiritual cleansing America needs. This cleansing is necessary for America to live up to its original promise. That is, the end of racism is not only something for which King hopes but also something literally owed to all people, as the foundational texts of the United States asserted all men were equal. That promise needs to be honored; the United States needs to finally guarantee freedom for all.

Finally, King makes it clear that race impacts everyone in America—not just Black people. While he refers to the “new militancy” of Black Americans as a “marvelous” effort to create a better nation, he also encourages Black people to not hate White people simply for being White people. He makes strides to separate the “vicious racists” of Alabama, particularly “its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification.” He even asks the audience to note those “of our White brothers” at the march. Their freedom, King notes, is “inextricably bound” to the freedom of Black people. Indeed, the freedom of all American souls is only guaranteed once the cruelty of racism is expunged: Racism is not just a burden on the oppressed but also the racist oppressor. The oppressors are not spiritually free so long as they hold hate and bitterness in their hearts. Thus, King ends his speech by looking beyond Black and White people to include all of “God’s children,” including people of all faiths and races and hoping someday they will be able to join as one to sing a Black spiritual song and proclaim they are “Free at last!”

The Promise of the United States

King’s speech makes frequent and repeated historical references. Like many sermons, “I Have a Dream” explicitly links the past to the present, suggesting the sins of the past continue to inform the sins of the present. Thus, racism from American history begets racism in America’s present and ruins the nation. King notes the founding documents of the United States reference that “all men are created equal” and patriotic songs call the nation “the land of liberty.” These are promises of what the United States should be, but regarding Black people, America has not lived up to its promise. The patriotic songs and foundational documents are lies.

King’s speech uses the symbolism of the Lincoln Memorial—the location of the speech—to remind the audience of what has specifically been promised to Black people. Lincoln, a century earlier, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, effectively ending slavery. But 100 years after slavery, King notes, Black people are still not free. Instead, America has cast Black people to “exile in [their] own land.” He uses the metaphor of the check to suggest America wrote a check to Black people that cannot be cashed, as Black people have no upward mobility even in the parts of the nation sans legalized segregation. King notes the impetus for the march and his speech is to demand payment on that check and “make real the promises of democracy.” King’s dream is that the nation will finally make true the promise of its founding and admit that all men are indeed created equally.

None of this is to suggest that King is anti-American—a charge leveled at him by those who opposed the civil rights movement. Rather, King wants to celebrate the nation and sing its patriotic songs. But he needs the country to quit lying to be worth celebrating. If America truly treated all people as equal, then the patriotic songs and sayings would take on a “new meaning.” Finally, King mentions that history impacts the lives of individuals in the present, touching on “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners.” Here, King does not suggest America needs to merely live up to its promise but also confront its past sins. King hopes Americans can eventually get along regardless of race but says Americans will largely always be the descendants of slave owners and slaves. This is not to say they must always feel stained by the sin of the past, though; instead, they must build a new future free of the stain.

Faith and Salvation

King’s speech takes a religious form, utilizing sermon-style and making several allusions to biblical verses and imagery, and more overt references to God. King discusses the brotherhood of man rising from the dark valley to a mountain of justice and light, recalling the biblical imagery of valleys and mountains. He paraphrases Amos 5:24: “[W]e will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream” and almost verbatim quotes Isaiah 40:4 when he says “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.” These quotations imply that the audience will be rewarded for their struggle; these and other references heavily lean into the Christian notion of salvation. Specifically, King describes the “redemption of unearned suffering,” implying spiritual salvation for those who have suffered (Black Americans) and the idea that their suffering has not been earned for sin, meaning it is not deserved.

To that point, King also advises his listeners to avoid the type of action considered sinful or leading to spiritual punishment. “In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds,” he states. Civil rights activists must avoid responding to violence with violence and “drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” These paths would cost Black people their own spiritual freedom and, by extension, salvation; furthermore, this would make the progress of civil rights less successful. Thus, his calls for nonviolence are both philosophical and pragmatic. But the spiritual aspect of it matters more to King, who seems to worry that the fight for freedom may not be worth it if it leads to sin. Thus, he encourages his supporters to meet “physical force with soul force.”

To be able to continually avoid both the temptation of violence and hatred as well as the temptation to give up, King reminds his audience they must keep the faith. For King, the faith comes from hoping to see his dream come to fruition; he states he will return to the South to continue the fight with the “faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” King uses his own faith to inspire others and ends his speech on a triumphant note of the vision for the redemptive future he believes can be willed into being by the marchers.