Tuesday, February 7

A little bit of literature

I have a dream

“There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ‘When will you be satisfied?’ 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. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: ‘For Whites Only.’ We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’"

(...)

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” 

(...)

“I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!”

Click here to access the entire speech or watch it below.

Vocabulary build-up

The term negro was the correct way to refer to a black person at the time of this speech in the 1960s. Its definition refers to "a member of any of the dark-skinned indigenous peoples of Africa and their descendants elsewhere." This term has evolved over time from "colored" during Segregation, to "negro" during the times of the Freedom Movement and the Black Panthers, to "African American" from the 1970s to the early 2000s, and today, more commonly, to "black". Each term is correct within its given historical context.

The adjective righteousness means “morally upright; without guilt or sin; in accordance with virtue or morality.”

Comments

February is Black History Month, which is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time to recognize their central role in US history. It is a month to contemplate how African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in many forms, from America's earliest days into the 21st century. In light of this important part of American culture, we will only explore black authors this month, beginning with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his everlasting I have a Dream speech, which came to be regarded as one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory. The March on Washington, and especially King's speech, helped put civil rights at the top of the agenda of reformers in the United States and facilitated passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dr. King was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. He led targeted, nonviolent resistance against Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination. In essence, he was a portrait of African American resistance against century-old discrimination and inspiration for future generations’ struggles, which has inspired and continues to inspire numerous artists even today.