Who Is Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Still Relevant Today

America is a nation “from many, one” as stated in our country’s original motto. We pride ourselves on the granted equal opportunity and freedom afforded to each citizen. But are these premises held true and adequately carried out? My answer is a resounding no! Our country’s intricate history provides us with the foundation that explains why and how discrimination has infiltrated and given the upper hand to the white race that has dominated the American society, while suppressing races of color. Dating back to the discovery of the new world we know as the contemporary United States, the African American race has been segregated and mistreated as exemplified through

Race is still an open topic in America and in the world, as it has always implied differentiation, inequalities and division among human beings, and has been the basis for some of the most tragic events in history.

Human brains evolved on the plains of Africa, molded to keep us from being eaten or inadvertently killing ourselves. We are not computers making supremely logical decisions. We aren’t even fact finders- so long as our view of the world is accurate enough for survival and reproduction, nature is content to let the systematic errors be and may even positively select for them. These systematic errors in reasoning are known as cognitive biases and they allow us to unknowiThirty years after the events of To Kill a Mockingbird, Martin Luther King Jr said in his defining “I Have a Dream” speech, “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.” Maycomb would have benefitted from this message as repeatedly characters are reduced to their skin color, logic falling to the wayside as thoughtlessness flourished. In the absence of deliberately applied reason, systematic errors in human’s natural reasoning can run rampant, creating and justifying racism.

“America needs to end racial injustice and make justice a reality for God’s children”(Martin Luther King Jr., 3).

He had a dream. In August 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. electrified America with his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, dramatically delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He stood as a proud black man, speaking of racial injustice and his dream of seeing American citizens come together as a united nation regardless of race and background. Today his speech is one of the most famous speeches in history. Although the speech was presented 54 years ago, it is still relevant today due to the racial discrimination that people have faced recently and are still facing today. Everyone is not treated fairly. African-Americans are treated especially poorly. The level of black youth poverty was higher in 2015 than it was in 1968. Another example of

Although, every marginalized population has the potential to be denied access to opportunities, there are some groups likely to experience deprivation solely based on color. Martin Luther King Jr. (1963) states,

The election of Barack Obama as the 56th president of the United States raised many hopes that the “Black struggles” was finally over. For conservatives, Obama victory reassured their beliefs that there was no longer such thing as racism and that every American had equal rights and opportunity to pursue the American dream. While many people have come to believe that all races have equal rights in America, Tim Wise argues in his documentary “White Like Me” that not only does racism and unconscious racial bias still exist, but that also White Americans are unable to simply relate to the variety of forms racism and inequality Blacks experience. This is mainly because of the privileges they get as the “default.” While Wise explores the variety forms of racism and inequality today such as unconscious racism, Black poverty, unemployment, inadequate education system, and prison system, the articles by the New York Times Editorial Board, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Adam Liptak further explore some the disparities in the criminal justice system. Ana Swanson points out in her article, “The Stubborn Persistence of Black-White Inequality, 50 Years after Selma” that while the “U.S. has made big strides towards equal rights,” significant gaps still remains between the two races. With the Supreme Court striking down a “portion of the Voting Rights Act that stopped discriminatory voting laws from going into effect in areas of the country with histories of disenfranchisement,” civil

"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." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King emphasizes in his speech “I have a dream,” how the colored are not treated the same and not a seen as an equal human to the whites. “One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.” (Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., page 1). A colored is regarded less than a white person as the text communicates. “We will be able to speed up that day when

"I have a dream that my four 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." — Martin Luther King, Jr. / "I Have A Dream" speech, August 28, 1963” (http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-king-jr-9365086#i-have-a-dream

According to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech, Blacks were denied their equal rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (I Have a Dream). The Emancipation Proclamation, written by Abraham Lincoln, supposedly freed all slaves but Blacks were still treated with disrespect. Blacks needed to have equal rights for many reasons.

Often when racial inequality and discrimination is being discussed, we get to think of terms such as “white privilege” and American history with the Civil Rights Act in 1964. But we think of it, mainly as history. And that, according to Tim Wise, an anti-racism activist and American writer, is the biggest self-deception of the modern American world. Throughout an article posted on his own webpage, concerning school shootings, Tim Wise discusses the general American attitude towards this relatively new phenomenon in American society. With the use of especially pathos Wise argues that the most concerning thing about these events is how

August 28, 1963 (Eidenmuller) marked a very important day in history that had an impact not only on America, but the whole world. On this day, Martin Luther King Jr. presented his well known I Have a Dream speech that aimed to eliminate racism, inequality and discrimination. He strongly believed that one day people would put their differences aside and come together. So, what happened to that dream? Along with other equality initiative ideas, they rarely make it past the idea stages or end in the actual eradication result. It is clear to us that even after 51 years, our societies still struggle with accepting full equality. Within those 51 years we have made a mass amount of progress but, a common thought would be that after this long the issue should have been eradicated. Two essays that can be used as an example of proof that racial inequality still exists in our society are, Black Men in Public Spaces by Brent Staples and Who Shot Johnny? by Debra Dickerson. In these essays, both provide solid evidence to support their main goal with the use of different writing styles, tone, and rhetorical devices to display how African Americans are perceived and treated by society.

Two men of faith who had tremendous power in what they said and believed could move and motivate the masses with their words. Martin Luther King Jr’s, “I Have a Dream” Speech which will be remembered history as one of the most memorable speeches in American that called for the urgency in the lack of equality and broken promises of African Americans by the American government. Malcolm X’s, God’s Judgment of White America (The Chickens Come Home to Roost) released later the same year of 1963, continued to respond on the inequality of African Americans, but also explained the end of White America was coming. “How the enslavement of millions of black people in this country is now bringing White America to her hour of Judgment.” (X) Both trying to raise awareness of the struggles of African American population and that things needed to change since nothing had really changed since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. “One hundred years later, the life of the negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” (King) My goal in this essay is to explain the similarities and differences of these two speeches and the two perspectives of these men during the Civil rights movement in the 1960’s.

This critical evaluation essay will be on Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have a Dream”. This speech was delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on 28 August 1963. This march was initially organized to focus on the economy, but as the date grew near, the focus shifted to social issues in the country. This march was attended by more than two hundred thousand people, to include the many actors, musicians, and the civil rights leaders. Martin Luther King said “I am happy to join you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation”. (King). Martin Luther King not only touch the hearts of so many that day, and on that he made people aware that there was work