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In the year 1963, there was still segregation within the United States. Black men had fewer privileges and fewer rights over white people, so they were trying to stop segregation and bring equality to all Americans.
Martin Luther King’s speech ‘I Have a Dream’ was one of the greatest and a turning point in the struggle for equality. In the first part of the speech, Martin lists the injustices that African Americans faced, segregation, police brutality, disenfranchisement, and discrimination, and also urged a call for non-violent actions. “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” . In the second part of the speech, Mr. King conveys his dream of peace and racial harmony, a vision of the future in which people “will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”.
Using rhetorical devices like repetition, rhyme, and metaphors, “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together”, as well as historic, biblical and literary references that moved the crowd, this message of struggle and hope became a defining moment, not only for Mr. King's career but also for the civil rights movement.
The text could be interpreted differently depending on the reader. For African Americans, it could be interpreted as a hope of achieving the goal of equality and peace among all American citizens and also fulfilling the Emancipation Proclamation that had been going on for a hundred years, but black people were not free yet, so it again gave them a hope of being ‘free at last’. On the other hand, it can also be interpreted as an attempt at rebellion or a revolution or simply as an offense as it criticized some states “down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification”. Also, it could cause a new point of view and attention over the struggle for the civil rights of African Americans and admiration for their peaceful protests, “We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence”. For the white Americans who were not racists, this could have been seen as a call for help.
If the text had been written in the past in the USA, it could be seen as a threat in one way as it promoted things such as freedom and equality but also criticized some states and social groups that were not allowed. So this could have been banned as black people had even less rights and freedom. For the authorities in the South, this speech could be seen as a threat as it targets the most racist states. For a different nation, this could have been supported or not, but it wouldn't have a significant impact on the Negro’s struggle because it should be targeted at the center of the problem, and the only responsible and with the power to do something, the Americans.
To summarize, we can say that the speech of Martin Luther King occupies a significant place in the history of African Americans because he played one of the key roles in the struggle for equality during the time of segregation in the United States.
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