Dr. King Wasn't Just Dreaming

As we approach the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a familiar anaphora will ring out time and again: "I have a dream." And, in some ways, that's unfortunate.

The phrase is powerful and historically significant--no doubt about that. Yet its power and significance have been worn thin in recent years through repeated use as a civil rights sound bite and a journalistic cliché.

The impassioned speech that Dr. King delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 is one of the great orations of the past century. In addition to being a central text of the Civil Rights Movement, the "I Have a Dream" speech is a model of effective communication. In fact, it's one of the ten most commonly anthologized works in freshman composition textbooks. (You can listen to the full speech at the American Rhetoric website.)

The final section of the speech, in which Dr. King articulates his dream of freedom and equality, is familiar to most Americans. But the rest of the speech deserves just as much attention for its social significance and rhetorical power: the opening allusions to Lincoln and to slavery, the telling analogy of a bad check, the distinctive messages delivered to different segments of the audience, and the insistent call for action now:

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

Clearly, without this demand for present action, the more famous "I have a dream" refrain would be little more than dreaminess.

Visit our Reading Quiz on "I Have a Dream," by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Classic Essays and Speeches:

• I Have a Dream, by Martin Luther King, Jr.
• The Gettysburg Address, by Abraham Lincoln
• The Education of Women, by Daniel Defoe
• How It Feels to Be Colored Me, by Zora Neale Hurston