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Captain John Rahm writes in on Martin Luther King Day.

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D

r. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous I have a dream speech, given on August 28, 1963 in Washington DC, was first given two months earlier.

Captain John Rahm

Yes, the most famous of all speeches was a repeat.

The original speech was given June 23, 1963 in Detroit during the Walk to Freedom demonstration. This is not criticism from me. I love the speech. This is just a fact lost to obscurity in a time when social media did not exist. Evidently, Dr. King, rightly so, liked this work enough to give it a repeat.

Below is an excerpt of the original given in Detroit. I like it better than the repeat in Washington. You can decide for yourself.

And so this afternoon, I have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day, right down in Georgia and Mississippi and Alabama, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to live together as brothers.

I have a dream this afternoon that one day, one day little white children and little Negro children will be able to join hands as brothers and sisters.

I have a dream this afternoon that my four little children, that my four little children will not come up in the same young days that I came up within, but they will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not the color of their skin…

I have a dream this evening that one day we will recognize the words of Jefferson that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and “every valley shall be exalted, and every hill shall be made low; the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

And with this faith I will go out and carve a tunnel of hope through the mountain of despair. With this faith, I will go out with you and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. With this faith, we will be able to achieve this new 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 with the Negroes in the spiritual of old: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!

Fair Winds,
Colonel John Rahm, USMC (ret.)

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