I Have a Dream (Martin Luther King, Jr.) speech excerpt

Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968) was an African American priest who believed that peaceful protest was the most effective weapon against racism and injustice. In 1963, he organised a march against racial discrimination. 200,000 people took part in the march. After the march, King gave his famous speech I Have a Dream. In 1964, racial discrimination was made illegal, and King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1968, he was assassinated by a sniper in Memphis, Tennessee.

MODEL TEXT  I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King, Jr. was not only an influential leader, he was also a great speaker. In 1963, he delivered his speech, I Have a Dream, outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The speech became a turning point for the Civil Rights Movement and is, to this day, regarded as one of the greatest American speeches ever given.

score snes (tyve)

Emancipation Proclamation

erklæring om slaveriets afskaffelse momentous afgørende decree bekendtgørelse beacon ledestjerne sear svitse withering knusende crippled lemlæstet manacles lænker segregation raceadskillelse vast enorm prosperity velstand, fremgang I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score 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. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of

Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd after delivering his famous I Have a Dream speech during the 28th August 1963 Civil Rights march on Washington DC.

material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

I have a 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”.

languish sygne hen creed tro, overbevisning self-evident indlysende

swelter lide, gå til oppression undertrykkelse vicious ondsindet interposition spærring nullification ugyldiggørelse prodigious fantastisk the Alleghenies navnet på en bjergkæde curvaceous kurvet molehill muldvarpeskud hamlet flække Gentile ikke-jøde spirituals religiøse sange

The governor of Alabama at the time, George Wallace, tried to stop black students from entering the University of Alabama. In his own speech as governor, he called for “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

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 the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that 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. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

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 the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lockout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every State and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

UNDERSTANDING

20 Write notes

The occasion and the audience are closely linked to the purpose and the content of a speech.

Read the speech closely and use the categories below to write notes about I Have a Dream. You can write keywords or sentences. Prepare to share your thoughts in class.

Occasion Audience Purpose Content

21 Identify the structure

Work with a partner. Scan the excerpt and try to identify the structure. Consider the following:

Introduction: • Martin Luther King, Jr. opens his speech with historical facts. Which facts? • Later, he states the purpose of his speech by saying why they have all come to Washington. What is the purpose?

Body: • King presents his main arguments. What does he dream of?

Conclusion: • King ends his speech with a call to action. What does he want all Americans to do?

22 Work with language

Work with a partner. Read the speech closely to find examples of language techniques and fill out the worksheet.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation declaring that all slaves “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, was passed in 1865. However, it would still take many years until black Americans were given the same rights as white Americans.

TALKING

23 Prepare an interview

Work with a partner. Prepare an interview in which one of you is a reporter and the other is a person in the crowd who heard the speech. Your interview should include answers to the following questions:

• Why are you at this demonstration? • Have you ever experienced any racial discrimination? • What is your opinion of Martin Luther King? • What part of the speech made the biggest impression on you? • Why? • What did you feel when King delivered his speech?

Feel free to make up more questions of your own. Rehearse your interview and perform it for another pair.

WRITING

24 Write a speech

With his speech, King wanted to persuade the people in power to give equal rights to all American citizens. He also wanted to motivate the African American community to work together peacefully to be “free at last”. Now you are going to write your own persuasive speech. What change do you want to see in the world? Before you begin, consider the following questions: • What is your topic? • Who is your audience? • What is the occasion? • What would you like to persuade or motivate people to do? • What arguments could you use to persuade or motivate your audience?

Examples of topics could be:

animal rights plastic pollution the benefits of sports the importance of education dress codes in school

How to structure a speech

Example: Why recycle?

Introduction

Start with a quote: “There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away it must go somewhere.” (Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff).

or

Start with a shocking fact: More than eight million tons of plastic are dumped in our oceans every year.

and

Find an interesting way to state the main reason for the speech: Saving the environment is everyone’s business.

Body

Present three main points or arguments: • to conserve resources • to save energy • to protect the environment

Conclusion

Summarise your arguments: End with a rhetorical question: Or should we just let our oceans choke on plastics?

or

End with a call to action: Bring your own shopping bag and say no to straws!

TIPS Speech performance

» Don’t rush – take your time. » Speak clearly. » Use your voice to stress important words. » Seek eye contact with your audience. » Use gestures and facial expressions.