“Mother Dear, one day I’m going to turn this world upside down.” Christine King Farris
The date is August 28, 1963.
Venue: the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC.
It is late in the afternoon and finally he steps up to speak:
“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.”
For the next 12 minutes or so, he laments about the lot of colored people in America – injustices, police brutality, inequalities, segregation…In his words they (the people of color) had come “to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”
It must have sounded like a speech any civil rights leader in that era would give.
At least one person was hungry for more.
So it was that shortly after the statement:
“Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends”,
someone yelled out:
“Tell ’em about the dream Martin, tell ’em about the dream!”
It was Mahalia Jackson. She needed uplifting words and so did the whole nation.
He must have heard for he obliged her.
His next line was:
“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream…”
He departed from a prepared speech in that instant…
He went to church. He made history. He winged. He brought hope to a nation.
Dare to dream!