I Have a Dream Speech

by

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Character Analysis

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an American activist and Baptist minister who championed nonviolent resistance during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In August of 1963—the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which ended slavery in America—King delivered a speech called “I Have a Dream.” He gave that speech at the March on Washington, a massive rally for civil rights that took place in the heart of the nation’s capital. Throughout “I Have a Dream,” King spoke of his belief in the power of nonviolent resistance to transform America into a more just and equal place—a place King and countless other Black Americans had envisioned only in dreams. The speech, delivered in the style of a religious sermon, recounted the unbearable shame and indignity of living under segregation while calling on Americans of all faiths and races to unite and fight nonviolently for an end to injustice. King’s dreams for America ranged from the simple and touching (a vision of “little black boys and black girls [joining] hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers”), to the momentous and epic (a dream that “one day every valley shall be exalted” in the name of freedom for all). His wide-ranging visions of an “oasis” of justice in America reveal his unshaken faith in the country’s potential to live up to the promise its founding fathers laid out: that America was a place where all men were created equal. Throughout “I Have a Dream,” King revealed his deep faith in the fruits of collective struggle more broadly, but he also spoke intimately of his personal investment in the pursuit of justice: he dreamed that one day his children would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” In sharing his most closely held dreams of progress and change to a massive audience gathered at the march, King offered up an intimate part of himself even as he spoke of grand, prophetic visions for a more unified country. Furious but hopeful, the version of himself that King revealed through “I Have a Dream” became a driving force in the civil rights movement and a reminder of the fact that every participant in the movement had a story and a dream of their own.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes in I Have a Dream Speech

The I Have a Dream Speech quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or refer to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
America’s Promises and Potential Theme Icon
).
I Have a Dream Quotes

Fivescore years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free; one hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination…

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. […] Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:

This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Related Symbols: Heat
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

Go back to Mississippi; go back to Alabama; go back to South Carolina; go back to Georgia; go back to Louisiana; go back to the slums and ghettos of the northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can, and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American 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.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

I have a dream 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!

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning—“my country ‘tis of thee; sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride; from every mountainside, let freedom ring”—and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. […]

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

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Related Symbols: Hills and Mountains
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:
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I Have a Dream Speech PDF

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes in I Have a Dream Speech

The I Have a Dream Speech quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or refer to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
America’s Promises and Potential Theme Icon
).
I Have a Dream Quotes

Fivescore years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free; one hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination…

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. […] Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:

This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Related Symbols: Heat
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

Go back to Mississippi; go back to Alabama; go back to South Carolina; go back to Georgia; go back to Louisiana; go back to the slums and ghettos of the northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can, and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American 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.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

I have a dream 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!

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning—“my country ‘tis of thee; sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride; from every mountainside, let freedom ring”—and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. […]

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

Related Characters: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (speaker)
Related Symbols: Hills and Mountains
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis: