I Had A Dream

Martin Luther King
Father of the Civil Rights Movement

During the 1950’s, in America the Declaration of Independence was far from being real. The black communities were being treated badly because they had a different skin color. The racial separation started to fall when people of the black community started to fight back against the unjust laws. They were fighting for equal rights.

In Martin Luther King’s speech, “I Had a Dream”, he talked about the unjust laws, and the unequal opportunities that the blacks had. There weren’t mixed communities or schools. Martin Luther King said it had to change; that the Declaration was disregarded and that people needed to change their views.

“Nineteen Sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning.” Even today the blacks are not equal. King wasn’t trying to free the black people in 1963. He was trying to free them from the past, present and everyday there after. People should open their eyes and realize that we are all equal; that it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, rich or poor, we are all the same.

“When all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.” Only when everyone accepts that we are all the same, will there be freedom for all people. Only when we let freedom ring from New York to California, from America to China, only then will people feel good about living in America; feel good to live in a racist-free country. King had a dream, a dream that black men as well as white men would have the same rights and the same chances at life. He had a dream that everyone would accept each other, not for the color of their skin, but for the actions of their heart.

King refused to believe that there were “insufficient funds” in the bank of justice, that there were “insufficient funds” in the great vault of opportunity. King and the black community cashed a check that day, a check that thrust the Civil Rights Movement forward, a check to give all men equal rights. It may not have been a big check, but each day we add to it. Each day many people do everything in their power to give everyone equal rights. King got the ball rolling; now it is up to us to take it to the finish line.