Douglass Project's sponsor/source for this text: Prepared by: D. L. Oetting Accepted: 26 May 1999 Last updated: 26 May 1999 Home | Speech Guides & Notes | Reference | Featured Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream," 28 August 1963 Occasion: The keynote speech at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, King gave the address from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to about 250,000 people assembled before him. The speech was also broadcast on TV and published in newspapers. Since 1963, King's "I Have a Dream" speech has become the most famous public address of 20th century America. The immediate effect of the speech also shaped American history. Julian Bond, a fellow participant in the civil rights movement and student of King, would write, "King's dramatic 1963 'I Have a Dream' speech before the Lincoln Memorial cemented his place as first among equals in civil rights leadership; from this first televised mass meeting, an American audience saw and heard the unedited oratory of America's finest preacher, and for the first time, a mass white audience heard the undeniable justice of black demands" (Seattle Times, 4 April 1993). "I Have a Dream" 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. ...
