8-28-63... "I Have A Dream"

On this day, August 28th 1963 the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech on the National Mall in Washington D.C.  

I have had the pleasure to go to the exact spot where the speech took place and look out along the National Mall Area... It is truly moving, and a presence is felt in the wind.  The March on Washington saw over 300,000 people, white and black, male and female, join together at a time when unity was not apart of the future.

I recommend and encourage EVERYONE to go to the National Mall and take in that part of history.  

It was a defining moment, and one that still resonates with people everywhere.

And for your viewing pleasure... The Man of the Hour

Some special points...

"Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a

 beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual."

"The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people. For many of our white brothers as evidenced by their presence here today have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We can not walk alone."

"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 my four little children will 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."

"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 a table of brotherhood."

"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring—when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day 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!"

For those that wanted to hear the most famous parts... here is the abridged version... short but still motivating and moving..

It is 2008 Ladies and Gentlemen, please...

RACIAL HATRED SHOULD NOT STILL EXIST...