I Have a Dream

By Martin Luther King Jr.

From Wikipedia: “‘I Have a Dream’ is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the speech was a defining moment of the civil rights movement and among the most iconic speeches in American history.

“Beginning with a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared millions of slaves free in 1863, King said ‘one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free’. Toward the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme ‘I have a dream’, prompted by Mahalia Jackson‘s cry: ‘Tell them about the dream, Martin!’ In this part of the speech, which most excited the listeners and has now become its most famous, King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred.”

The translation here is that part of the speech. It was translated by pluntert, with the help of ChristianSi.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.