I Have a Dream: The 1963 March on Washington Analysis

I Have a Dream (1963)

Classification

• Historical document: Public speech delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington.
• Originally designed as an homage to the Gettysburg Address, timed to correspond with the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.
• The Emancipation Proclamation was an order issued to the Executive Branch by President Lincoln in January 1863; it was not passed by Congress as a law.

Authorship

• Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968): American civil rights activist and clergyman.
• Leader of the civil rights movement who fought for the rights of the African American population.
• Utilized non-violent methods to influence public opinion.
• Assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

Context

• Mid-20th Century: Increasing racism against African Americans, who were victimized under a corrupt legal system.
• 1954: Brown v. Board of Education, a Supreme Court case declaring state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional.
• 1955: A black woman was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• 1963: Southern states featured segregation in schools, churches, hotels, and even cemeteries.
• Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led a mass demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama, in response to official brutality against black people.
• The Great March on Washington demonstrated mass support for the civil rights legislation proposed by President Kennedy, who later signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Aims

• Provide faith in change through non-violent struggle and send a message of hope: no more half-measures.
• Remind people to conduct themselves with non-violence.
• Denounce the critical situation of black people in America, especially in the Southern states.
• Open the public mind to a future of justice and equality by referencing the Emancipation Proclamation, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence.
• Help people realize that they already possessed the necessary legislative tools, which had not yet been fully implemented.

Results

• The March on Washington was a turning point in the pursuit of civil rights for African Americans.
• 1964 Civil Rights Act: Outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, national, and religious minorities and ended the unequal application of voting requirements and racial segregation.
• 1964: Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize.

*The Gettysburg Address was a speech delivered by President Lincoln in 1863 during the American Civil War. It reiterates the principles of human equality exposed by the Declaration of Independence.