I Have a Dream is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he calls for an end to racism in the United States and called for civil and economic rights. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the speech was a defining moment of the Civil Rights Movement.[2]

Beginning with a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed millions of slaves in 1863,[3] King observes that: one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.[4] Toward the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme I have a dream, prompted by Mahalia Jacksons cry: Tell them about the dream, Martin![5] In this part of the speech, which most excited the listeners and has now become its most famous, King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred.[6] Jon Meacham writes that, With a single phrase, Martin Luther King Jr. joined Jefferson and Lincoln in the ranks of men whove shaped modern America.[7] The speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century in a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.[8]

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was partly intended to demonstrate mass support for the civil rights legislation proposed by President Kennedy in June. Martin Luther King and other leaders therefore agreed to keep their speeches calm, also, to avoid provoking the civil disobedience which had become the hallmark of the Civil Rights Movement. King originally designed his speech as a homage to Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address, timed to correspond with the 100-year centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.[6]

King had been preaching about dreams since 1960, when he gave a speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called The Negro and the American Dream. This speech