X-Nico

6 unusual facts about I Have a Dream


George Raveling

On August 28, 1963, as Dr. Martin Luther King waved goodbye to an audience of over 200,000 "March on Washington" participants, he handed Raveling the original typewritten "I Have a Dream" speech.

I Have a Dream

The closing passage from King's speech partially resembles Archibald Carey, Jr.'s address to the 1952 Republican National Convention: both speeches end with a recitation of the first verse of Samuel Francis Smith's popular patriotic hymn "America" (My Country ’Tis of Thee), and the speeches share the name of one of several mountains from which both exhort "let freedom ring".

On August 26, 2013 UK's BBC Radio 4 broadcast "God's Trombone" in which Gary Younge looked behind the scenes of the speech and explored "what made it both timely and timeless".

As King waved goodbye to the audience, he handed George Raveling the original typewritten "I Have a Dream" speech.

The idea of constitutional rights as an "unfulfilled promise" was suggested by Clarence Jones.

North Chicago Community High School

The school is also home to the North Chicago branch of the I Have a Dream Foundation, which recruits a special group of high achieving students from the grade school level and moves on with them through high school, helping them to complete difficult school work, make important college decisions, and plan their future.


Philip A. Hart Plaza

The monument stands close to where Martin Luther King, Jr. first gave his “I Have a Dream” speech on June 20, 1963, a speech that was repeated later that year at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The David Susskind Show

Susskind did a two-hour interview including commercials with Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963, two months before the civil rights leader delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.


see also