49 years ago today, civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of the most amazing, most memorable, iconic speeches ever recorded, his “I Have A Dream” speech. For seventeen minutes, eighteen years to the day after the murder of Emmett Till — which sparked the African American Civil Rights Movement — Dr. King spoke in front of 200,000 people on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which was organized by a gay man, Bayard Rustin.
The full text of the speech, which is copyrighted, can be viewed here.
You cannot help but listen to this speech and feel more American — and hope for an America that, too, is more American.