"I Have A Dream" - transcript
As it turns out, the most famous line in the speech wasn't meant to be in the speech to begin with, Dr King's advisors thought the line was too tired, overused, no longer inspiring. Good thing he didn't listen, no?
And because nothing in this world is free, you have to pay his estate to air this speech. "It will not be in the public domain until 2038, 70 years after King's death. Until then, any commercial enterprises wishing to legally broadcast King's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered August 28, 1963, on the National Mall, or reprint its words must pay a hefty fee."
Thing is, public domain extends beyond airing a speech on TV, and a good idea can never be contained.
Common - A Dream
There's more to MLK than this one speech that has come to define his legacy, the man wasn't just fighting for racial equality.
Listen to this Interview with Martin Luther King, Jr., March 18, 1964, “Even for those who have listened to King's speeches and read "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and other writings, there's something to just hearing the man talk, to listening to his mind at work in real time, that offers a greater sense of who he is. In this interview, we get a glimpse of King not just as an orator preaching on behalf of civil rights and a more just society, but as a psychological observer, political tactician, and social-change strategist grappling with a wide array of opponents and personal threats with extraordinary clarity and sympathy.” (Martin Luther King Jr.'s Amazing 1964 Interview With Robert Penn Warren)
For Africans, this letter is especially poignant, linking our struggle for independence, ongoing to this day, with the civil rights movement we grew up hearing about, yet never truly understanding, I suspect.
In light of the drums of war currently being beaten over Syria, perhaps some reflection is in order, as to the nature of war and government.
And last, but definitely not least, Dr King's views on poverty and capitalism.
"The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty."
