LAD #26 I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King starts off his speech similarly how Abraham Lincoln starts off his Gettysburg Address. Instead of four score and seven years ago, King starts off his with five score years ago. He says five score years ago, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed and it gave a beacon of hope from blacks throughout the country. But a hundred years later, the blacks are still not free and is still treated horribly. King explains the blacks have conjugated at the capital to cash in a check, 'a promissory note that the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution signed that every American would fall heir.' "The note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights' of 'Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.'" King continues to use this analogy of a check and a bank by saying that the whites have marked "insufficient funds" on their check of freedom. But King "refuse(s) to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. (He) refuse(s) to believe that there is insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation." So he wants to cash the overdue check in order to recieve "the riches of freedom and the security of justice." King moves on from the analogy and says this is a time for action so that they get the freedoms they deserve. Blacks can not wait wait any longer or use gradualism to get these desired freedoms. He says the revolt will continue "until the bright day of justice emerges." King goes on to say that blacks must fight for their freedom, but do so with dignity and pride. "We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence." He says we can not turn back and that do not "...wallow in the valley of dsespair..." King procliams that he has a dream that is "deeply rooted in the American dream." His dream is that blacks can live peacefully side by side with whites and that his four children can "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." He concludes the speech repeating the words of an old African spiritual; "'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"'