speech but to King's entire platform is that acts toward civil liberties must always be sought in nonviolent means. King urges his followers not to "degenerate" into physical violence. He argues for meeting "physical force with soul force." And he also asks that the African American community look to members of the white community who have come to realize that "their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom" as a source of support in their efforts.

King also argues for listeners to push for civil rights in every corner of the country. King makes this feel very personal in his ending, noting very specific locations around the country where listeners should "go back" to with his message, continuing the work they have started on this march. He argues that freedom can ring in the South and everywhere else around the country and also makes the argument transcend racial divisions, looking also at religious differences at the end of the poem.

One of the arguments in Dr. King's speech is that the nation must grant African Americans their civil rights to fulfill the promises of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. These documents promised people of all colors that they had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but America had not made good on this promise. 

The second argument Dr. King makes is that now is the time to grant African Americans civil rights. King writes of "the fierce urgency of now" and speaks against the idea that gradualism, or eventually granting these rights, will be a solution. He states that there will not be any tranquility in the nation until civil rights are addressed. 

His last argument is that African Americans must conduct their crusade for civil rights without resorting to violence. In the process, African Americans should realize that many white people are working alongside them to bring about justice.

Dr. King’s speech is powerful because of its structure.  The three main parts to the speech can be seen as embodying much of what the Civil Rights Movement was about. 

In the construction of the speech that represents “the past,” Dr. King explores the plight of African-Americans in American history. Dr. King uses the phrase “one hundred years later” to help illuminate the struggle intrinsic to people of color. The focus on the past is how Dr. King evokes the struggle of slavery, post-slavery, and how the current fight for social equality has its roots in the past. 

When Dr. King contrasts the plight of African-Americans with the past, he also is able to suggest that the fight for Civil Rights is uniquely American. It is here in which Dr. King argues that there is a “promissory note” that needs to be fulfilled. 

As a result, Dr. King is able to pivot into the second part of the speech that constitutes the present tense. The speech was delivered as part of an event entitled “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” The focus of the event was to raise awareness of the economic and social injustice that African-Americans face in the modern setting. Event leaders like Bayard Rustin understood that there had to be a firm statement being made that would move the issue of Civil Rights to the forefront of American consciousness. This meant that economic injustice and social injustice had to be raised so that White Americans could recognize that something was fundamentally wrong in society. Dr. King uses this in his speech when he talks about how African-Americans are situated on a “lonely island of poverty” in the midst of a “vast ocean of material prosperity.” In such a contrast, Dr. King is able to evoke how modern America is at a critical juncture, one where the steps towards change can be undertaken in order to create a vision of the future where people from different narratives can “sit together at the table of brotherhood.” 

As a result, Dr. King is able to create a vision of the future as the third part of the speech.  In this section, Dr. King suggests that the dream is one where individuals can envision a world where social and economic equality are present. Racial harmony is achieved in Dr. King’s “dream,” a realm where the past and present have merged to make the future better than what was.  It is this portion of the speech wehre Dr. King’s repetition of “I Have a Dream” becomes poignant and quite stirring.  Dr. King’s speech is constructed in the same way that a human being sees time. The past has led to the present, which has set the stage for the future.  In portioning out his speech in such a manner, Dr. King is able to humanize a political struggle, making Civil Rights for people of color an encompassing issue for all Americans.

The main message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is that, despite the fact that slavery has been abolished for a century, Black people are still victims of prejudice, racism, and segregation. Enslaved persons were promised freedom, and yet their children's children a century later are still waiting for it.

In other words, Black people still lack the freedom that seems to be guaranteed them by the Emancipation Proclamation as well as by the founding documents of the United States of America. These documents state that all men, including both white and Black men, are created equal and possess the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Despite these promises of equality, Black people are still victims of police brutality and of poverty and are still looked down upon by white Americans.

Ultimately, Dr. King argues that freedom from prejudice—real freedom and not just freedom in name—must ring out across the country, that children of all races must play together and hold hands with one another, and only then will the promises made by the founding fathers truly come to fruition, because only then will they apply to all Americans rather than just some.

There are many inspiring and thought-provoking ideas in Martin Luther King Jr.'s most famous speech. Arguably the most succinct and powerful statements of Dr. King's message occur toward the end of the speech, when the words "I have a dream" are repeated at the beginning of each statement, with this anaphora connecting the ideas into an integrated dream of justice and equality.

The most important of these ideas is also perhaps the best-known:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

This idea, which seemed the epitome of anti-racism sentiment when the speech was delivered, has recently become controversial, with the current generation of activists often arguing that such colorblindness is not the desideratum. Their reasoning is that to discount race entirely in one's assessment of a person is to refuse to recognize the disadvantages under which Black people have labored, some of which are outlined earlier in Dr. King's speech.

The thought expressed here, however, remains vital, because it is a reminder of the final aim. There is a reason why this speech is not called "I Have a Reality." However necessary it is to recognize that colorblindness may not be possible or even desirable in the present, the goal Dr. King outlines is to strive for a society of genuine human brotherhood, in which people are not defined or divided by race.

One could say that the main points of the "I Have a Dream" speech are where Martin Luther King Jr. insists that there will never be rest nor tranquility if Black citizens aren't given equal rights. A second main point is the famous passage where he expresses the hope that one day, his children will be judged by their character, not by the color of their skin.

The first main point of the text to examine concerns King's prediction of what will happen if African Americans continue to be denied their basic rights. He states quite frankly that there will be neither rest nor tranquility if this situation is allowed to continue.

What makes this part of King's speech so significant is that it turned out to be all too prescient. Within two years of the "I Have a Dream" speech, urban riots would break out in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts and elsewhere in response to what protestors saw as deep social and economic discrimination against African Americans.

The second main point that King expresses is important because it shows that, despite everything, he is still hopeful that one day his four children will be judged by their character and not by the color of their skin. He goes on to emphasize his commitment to a multiracial society by expressing his hope that white children and Black children in the notoriously racist state of Alabama will join hands as sisters and brothers.

This striking imagery encapsulates the vision of Dr. King and the civil rights movement that he led.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of history's most moving speeches at the March on Washington in 1963. In it he described the past and present wrongs that black Americans had lived with since the country's founding and before. Despite those clear and legitimate complaints, he urged his listeners to follow the high road as they sought to create a better future, which he described with soaring and inspiring rhetoric.

In describing the injustices the country had perpetrated on black people, King of course focused on slavery. He pointed out that when the Declaration of Independence was written, it didn't apply to "all men" since black Americans were not treated as equal people. The Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Lincoln, before whose memorial statue King spoke, should have activated the "promissory note" of the Declaration for the nation's black population. King points out, however, that the promise had still not been fulfilled, comparing it to a bad check.

Saying that the marchers had come to Washington to "cash a check," he went on to describe the injustices of America's segregated society where black people couldn't sleep in the motels that whites could or live in the better neighborhoods. Despite their legitimate anger over being discriminated against, King urged his listeners to avoid violence even when it was used against them. He cautioned against painting all white people with a broad brush because many were on their side, "as evidenced by their presence here today." While adhering to "dignity and discipline" in their struggle, they must never give up until their goals of full equality were realized.

King then turned to his vision of the future as he encouraged his listeners to go back to their home states. As he outlined the hope he had for true equality, he named many of the Southern states where black people were treated most unfairly: Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina. He painted a beautiful word picture of a future where white citizens and black citizens all have equal rights and share the bond of brotherhood as God's children.

By looking back at past injustice against black people, cataloging current-day examples of discrimination and describing a hopeful future, King inspired his listeners to keep up their crusade for full equality.

While Dr. King's speech is rhetorically powerful, he offers specific facts and detail that enhance the purpose of his speech.  Dr. King clearly understands the context in which he delivers the speech.  The opening invocation of President Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" speech is one factual context in which the issue of Civil Rights is introduced.  At a later point in the speech, Dr. King speaks to the conditions of African Americans a century later, facts that he believes justifies the demand for Civil Rights:

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. 

Many facts about life for African- Americans in the Civil Rights Era emerge from this passage.  Police brutality in the North and South was a reality for many African- Americans.  The inability to enjoy equal opportunity was a fact under Southern Segregation.  Jim Crow Laws in the South that substantiated a "separate, but equal" reality, even when the Court a decade earlier struck down segregation, is something that Dr. King addresses in the references to hotels and motels.  For African- Americans, the presence of the ghetto was a fact that Dr. King makes specific mention as well as the issue of political autonomy.  The fact was that Southern African- Americans were being intimidated from using their right to vote.  While Northern political autonomy was present for African- Americans, the institutional racism that presented itself prevented any real or full acknowledgement of this condition.  In this passage, specific facts becomes the basis of the speech and the reason why respecting "the fierce urgency of now" is something that Dr. King demands of his listeners.

"I Have a Dream" is Martin Luther King Jr.'s most famous speech and one of the most iconic speeches ever delivered in American history. It was given on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

As a wise and educated man, Dr. King realized that the best way to address the nation and raise awareness about the problem with racial discrimination and segregation was to try and make the public understand how humanity is lost when there is no equality. He spoke about the three major evils in the world—the evil of racism, the evil of war, and the evil of poverty. He also spoke about the many injustices that the Black population faced on a daily basis and about the unstable sociopolitical climate of the United States.

Partially improvising the second half of his speech, Dr. King told millions of Americans that he had a dream of a world where there would be no injustice, oppression, racism, or discrimination: a world where all people, regardless of their race and ethnicity, would be treated with respect, and a world where people would be judged based on their character and not on their skin color. Because of his powerful words and his ability to motivate and inspire people, Martin Luther King Jr. became the most visible spokesperson of the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the "I Have a Dream" speech, which has received much acclaim because of its impact on and reflection of the civil rights era.

Martin Luther King Jr. emerged during this time as a leader for civil rights principles, maintaining a strong position on nonviolent protest as the best course of action for accomplishing needed social change. King drew from biblical principles to shape his beliefs; he was also a minister and began preaching at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954. King led bus boycotts and worked with Rosa Parks and other civil rights leaders to overturn the segregation that divided America.

King spoke at the 1963 March on Washington to urge the American government to outlaw discrimination in a variety of forms. Prior to the event, King worked with his attorney, Clarence B. Jones, and New York businessman Stanley Levinson to draft the speech the world needed to hear. The night before the speech, Jones and King met again about the content, and King relied on this conversation heavily as he crafted his own final version. Over 250,000 people gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to hear King speak, and his words became an iconic representation of the civil rights movement in American history.

Because of the impact of the speech, King was recognized as Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1963. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was the youngest man ever to receive the award at that time and the third Black man to receive the honor.

Despite his vocal support of nonviolence in all efforts toward changing American culture, King was tragically shot on April 4, 1968, on a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. The man who murdered him, James Earl Ray, was captured and confessed to the crime. He was sentenced to ninety-nine years and died in prison.