Page 60 - All About History - Issue 12-14

“I have a dream”

Kennedy and King with John F Kennedy in the Oval Office, 28 August 1963
Civil-rights leaders of the March on Washington meet
King never publicly endorsed any political
candidate, but did reveal in 1960 he “felt that
Kennedy would make the best president”. The speech’s legacy
Many claim Kennedy owed his presidency
to King after securing his release from prison Despite the success of King’s speech, his address not appear in writing until 15 years later when a
following a protest in Atlanta, Georgia – a was largely forgotten afterwards, due to the speed transcript was published in the Washington Post.
gesture that helped gain a large proportion of of subsequent events, and to King’s increasing The original copy of the speech is currently
the black vote. But when the pair discussed disillusionment with his dream. He said that it had owned by George Raveling. The then-26-year-
the possibility of a second Emancipation “turned into a nightmare.” According to William P old basketball player had volunteered at the last
Proclamation, Kennedy was slow to act. Jones, author of The March On Washington, in the minute as a bodyguard during the march, and after
Kennedy was caught between opposing mid-1960s “most people would not have said it was King’s speech asked him if he could have his notes.
forces: on one side, his belief in equality, and on the most powerful speech ever.” Raveling has been offered as much as £1.8 million
the other, a preoccupation with foreign threats King’s assassination led the nation to rediscover ($3 million) for the original copy, but he says he has
such as communism. his speech, yet remarkably the full speech did no intention of selling it.

done so before, as the most dangerous Negro […] in their bare feet together with their oppressor in lily The casket of Martin Luther King Jr was
this nation from the standpoint of communism, the pad pools, with gospels and guitars and ‘I have a followed by more than 100,000 mourners
Negro and national security.” dream’ speeches?”
From this point on, King was targeted as a Whatever some of the critics might have said,
major enemy of the US and subjected to extensive though, there was no doubt that King’s speech
surveillance and wiretapping by the FBI. According singled him out as a leader. His oration has been
to Marshall Frady in his biography, Martin Luther lauded as the greatest of the 20th century, earned
King Jr: A Life, the FBI even sent King intercepted him the title of ‘Man of the Year’ by Time Magazine,
recordings of his extramarital affairs in an attempt, and subsequently led to him receiving the Nobel
King believed, to drive him to suicide. Peace Prize – he was the youngest person to have
Criticism not only came from the establishment, been awarded the honour at that time.
but from his peers. Civil-rights activist and author Most importantly, though, both the march
Anne Moody made the trip to Washington DC from and King’s speech paved the way for genuine
Mississippi for the march and recalls: “I sat on the and tangible civil-rights reforms, putting racial
grass and listened to the speakers, to discover we equality at the top of the agenda. The Civil Rights
had ‘dreamers’ instead of leaders leading us. Just Act of 1964 – landmark legislation that outlawed
about every one of them stood up there dreaming. discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex or
Martin Luther King went on and on talking about national origin – was enacted less than a year after
his dream. I sat there thinking that in Canton we King shared his dream for the American people.
never had time to sleep, much less dream.” Halfway through the speech, before doing away
Human-rights activist Malcolm X also famously with his notes, Martin Luther King Jr declared to
© Corbis; Alamy; Getty itself. Allegedly dubbing the event “the farce on “We cannot walk alone.” That he then spoke from
his thousands of brothers and sisters in the crowd:
condemned the march, as well as Dr King’s speech
his heart in such a poetic and unrepentant way
Washington”, he later wrote in his autobiography:
ensured that in the coming years, nobody did.
“Who ever heard of angry revolutionaries swinging
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