MLK's+Dream

I HAVE A DREAM! Cut and paste this information into a new page on your Unit 8 Online Notebook.

Excerpt 1 - [|I Have a Dream - Excerpt 1] //Five score years ago, ... a shameful condition.//


 * OUR WORDS -** Five score years ago the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, freeing slaves, yet one hundred years later, we aren’t free.

Excerpt 2 - [|I Have a Dream -- Excerpt 2] //In a sense ... the security of justice.//


 * OUR WORDS -** Our forefathers wrote the Constitution and Declaration of Independence saying that everyone, including black men, have unalienable rights. This is obviously not true, so now we have come to get our guaranteed rights.

Excerpt 3 - [|I Have a Dream -- Excerpt 3] //We have also come ... Now is the time.//


 * OUR WORDS -** This has to happen NOW. NOW is the time, not the future.

Excerpt 4 - [|I Have a Dream -- Excerpt 4] //But there is something ... soul force.//


 * OUR WORDS -**We’re not going to be violent, we will be peaceful. We must use our soul force.

Excerpt 5 - [|I Have a Dream -- Excerpt 5] //The marvelous new militancy ... We cannot turn back.//
 * OUR WORDS -** We need to unite with white people, because we can’t do this alone. We can’t turn back; we have to keep pushing.

Excerpt 6 - [|I Have a Dream -- Excerpt 6] //There are those ... like a mighty stream."//


 * OUR WORDS -** We’re not going to be satisfied until we’re equal.

Excerpt 7 - [|I Have a Dream - Excerpt 7] //And so even though ... I have a dream today!//

**OUR WORDS -** I have a dream, that everyone will be equal!!!! That my children will be judged by their character, not their skin color!!

Excerpt 8 - [|I Have a Dream - Excerpt 8] //And this will be the day ... we are free at last!//
 * OUR WORDS -** America will only be free when everyone is free.

AFTER

**If we didn't get to it in class, watch [|16th Street] to see what happened right after the March.**

KING

** Read the essay from [|**TIME 100 - Martin Luther King**]**. As you do, respond to the following questions ** Why does the author feel that whites owe King the greatest debt? ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The author feels that whites owe King the greatest debt because he led the U.S. on the path to claiming to be the leader of the ‘free world’, without disbelief. If he had failed, America’s position among other nations would have completely changed, and America wouldn’t be taken as seriously. The U.S. would also be a country of hypocrites. These are just a few ways why whites owe King the greatest debt.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yes. His nonviolent philosophy proved to Whites that African Americans could gain their freedom without being beasts or whatever they thought they were. Also, his ability to present such great speeches and rally up a crowd and keep them following was phenominal. There’s no other way that racial injustice could’ve been halted. His identity as a minister also gave people just another reason to like him, as religion proved very important during those times. All of these characteristics were necessary for such a success, and without Martin Luther King Junior, racism would be as prevalent today as it was in the 1940s - 50s.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Was King "the right man at the right time"? **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Probably, since people are using it completely out of context. Rather than being considered the urgent words of a man wanting justice, people are now portraying it as an easy catch phrase or slogan that can be taken lightly and associated with anything.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Would King be upset with the current use of his most often quoted line? Why or why not? **