The “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the marble steps of Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on August 28, 1963 forever rang the words of equality throughout the nation, extending from the “curvaceous slopes of California” to Sault Area Middle School in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where 4-H ARTiculate Journalists Jade Hu, Olivia Nyboer, Carter Tuhro, Audrie Matthews, and Autumn Proulx reflect nearly 60 years later.
His “dream” became the reality of future generations like their own.
“Barack Obama would have never been president,” Nyboer said after hearing King's famous speech for the first time. “A lot of black people have helped to make the world a better place.”
“I never knew that Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize,” Matthews added.
King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 "for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the African American population."
“Instead of doing things violently, which would not have given people time to think, he delivered his message in a way that let people ponder,” Matthews said. “He did it in a way that let guilt set in, so they could make the right decision.”
Club members further discussed what things would look like in 2023 if King and the tens of thousands who peaceably assembled around the Lincoln memorial on that sunny August day had remained silent.
“Everyone would be separated," Tuhro said. "Black people wouldn’t trust white people and white people wouldn’t trust black people. Lots of things need cooperation in order to function.”
“The country would be filled with a bunch of haters," Proulx agreed. "Everybody would be hateful, causing others to feel itty-bitty, like ants that people stomp on.”
“You wouldn’t go to school with the same people," Matthews said. "Some would be treated badly because of something they couldn’t control… skin color. I didn’t know he was assassinated. I wasn’t surprised when I learned that though.”
In fact, not one of the five club members seemed shocked to learn of King’s assassination on April 4, 1968.
The non-violent civil rights leader was shot to death by 40-year-old escaped fugitive James Earl Ray while standing on the second-floor balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
Proulx concluded that a lot of people hated King because he was speaking up for oppressed people. Some chose not to listen.
“People couldn’t see that hatred was wrong,” she said. “There is a lot of hate in the world and people just can’t get past it. We have to learn not to hate.”
Nyboer provided the example of people being forced to use separate bathrooms.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights describes past “Jim Crow” laws as legalized racial segregation, regulating African Americans to the backs of buses, separate drinking fountains, restrooms, and dining areas.
King wanted every American to be treated fairly, as Hu heard loud and clear when she repeated the following quote from his speech:
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
“They said they would be freed but weren’t actually free to do what they wanted to do,” said Hu.
Meanwhile, a number political leaders in Washington supported African American rights. A couple months before King's speech, President John F. Kennedy introduced the Civil Rights Act in a speech of his own delivered on June 11, 1963.
In it, he questioned all American citizens, “Are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other, that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes?”
According to The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law on July 2, 1964, shortly after it was passed by congress. The bill outlawed segregation in public domains and businesses. It also banned discriminatory practices in places of employment to protect Americans born of various race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
Freedom and equality finally rang true. Hu recited:
“Let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.”
Afterwards, club members thought of some of their favorite entertainment stars, such as Will Smith, Little Richard, and Beyonce Knowles. They all agreed they would not like a segregated country, in which those people were shunned.
“We cannot walk alone," Proulx quoted King. "And as we walk we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
