Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. According to an article in The Christian Post, the statement “I have a dream” was not a part of the original speech but was ad-libbed by Dr. King as he concluded his prepared remarks. At the time, Dr. King’s remarks were recorded without his knowledge and offered for sale by the Twentieth Century-Fox Record company. A federal case was opened at the time claiming copyright infringement, but a settlement was eventually reached to the benefit of several civil rights groups.
The well-read King referred in the famous speech to Scripture, Shakespeare’s Richard III, the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. King was assassinated five years after this march on Washington at the age of 39.
Watch a recording of the speech below.
