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Martin Luther King: 'I have a dream'

Broadcast Date: Aug. 28, 1963

"America has given the Negro people a bad check," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tells 200,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28, 1963. On television and radio, millions are spellbound as King calls upon America to make good on the promise "that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Then come the civil rights activist's most famous words: "I have a dream."

King's dream: a world where "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers." The electrifying speech is a high point of the civil rights movement, a peaceful demand for an end to racial segregation and discrimination. Forty years later, King's call to "let freedom ring" remains one of the most powerful orations ever delivered.

Martin Luther King: 'I have a dream'

• Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He completed his doctorate in 1953 and became a pastor in Montgomery, Ala., where he led a 382-day boycott of the city's bus lines. He went on to help lead anti-segregation and voting rights demonstrations in Birmingham and Selma, Ala.

• King tested parts of his famous speech the night before in Detroit. The next day, in Washington, his speech was the highlight of a three-hour program of speakers. King, a stellar orator who spoke in public 200 times a year, left his prepared text and began preaching, later claiming the words "just came to me." (Source: Naples Daily News)

• After his "I have a dream" speech, King was selected as Time Magazine's Man of the Year for 1963. The following year he became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

• In 1967, Martin Luther King was the CBC's Massey Lecturer, delivering a five-part series called Conscience for Change on the CBC Radio program IDEAS.

• James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tenn. King was in town to lead a march of sanitation workers. Standing on the balcony of room 306 of the Lorraine Hotel, King was shot in the neck. He was rushed to hospital and died soon afterwards. Ray was charged with murder two months later and pled guilty in 1969. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in 1998.

A brief history of the U.S. civil rights movement:
• May 17, 1954: U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, paving the way for large-scale desegregation.
• Dec. 1, 1955: In Montgomery, Ala., Rosa Parks makes national headlines when she refuses to give up her seat to a white passenger at the front of the 'coloured section' of a bus. A citywide bus boycott leads to buses being desegregated.

• Early 1957: King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Atlanta. The SCLC is committed to fighting racism and desegregation through non-violence.
• Sept. 1957: Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus organizes a demonstration outside a school in Little Rock, Ark., preventing nine black students from entering. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to escort the students into the classrooms.

• Feb. 1, 1960: Four African-American students stage a sit-in at a lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. when they are refused service. The sit-in prompts similar protests throughout the South.
• June 12, 1963: Medgar Evars, Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, is shot and killed outside his house by Byron De La Beckwith.
• July 2, 1964: President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment illegal.

• Sept. 15, 1964: A bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., killing four young girls. The bombing of the church, a well-known meeting place for civil rights leaders, sets off riots in Birmingham.
• March 7, 1966: Police in Montgomery, Ala. use tear gas, whips and clubs to beat civil rights protestors, hospitalizing 50. Footage of the altercation is broadcast all nationwide; the day goes down in infamy as "Bloody Sunday".

• Aug. 10, 1966: The U.S. Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This makes it easier for Southern African-Americans to register to vote, as literacy tests and other similar requirements become illegal.

Also on August 28:
• 1913: Author Robertson Davies is born in Thamesville, Ont. Davies would become one of the most successful writers in Canada. He wrote plays, essays and novels including "What's Bred In The Bone" and "Fifth Business."

Martin Luther King: 'I have a dream'

Medium: Radio

Program: CBC Radio News Special

Broadcast Date: Aug. 28, 1963

Guest(s): Martin Luther King

Duration: 3:13

Last updated:
Jan. 16, 2009