I Have A Dream
From a Slate article, I learn that tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech at the March on Washington.
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 a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four 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.
ABC will be showing a documentary, Peter Jennings Reporting—I Have a Dream, to mark the occasion tomorrow at 10pm ET. Virginia Heffernan calls the documentary “intelligent and rousing.”
UPDATE: The Right Christians has the complete speech annotated with the sources and allusions that Dr. Martin Luther King used in his speech. It’s worth reading.
What could be “rousing” about MLK’s life? Take a look at this for the story of the real man. Hypocrisy and whitewashing have made MLK into a quasi saint and demonized the man with more integrity: Malcolm X.
Nick: I could argue with you, but if you are the same guy I have seen commenting on some other blogs, then it might be a long argument. So I’ll just quote from the link you gave:
As every reasonable observer has commented, neither King’s sexual wanderings nor his scholarly misdeeds detract from his core achievement. By continually publicizing black grievances while putting a palatable, nonviolent face on resistance to jim crow, King paved the way for the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s and a major turnaround in public attitudes about race. But there’s no getting around the fact that he was a complex and deeply flawed man. Was he a great American? No argument here.
That is a classy response, Zack. Bravo!