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Dr. Martin Luther King and "I Have a Dream"

#1 · January 17, 2011, 8:39 am

Quote from Forum Archives on January 17, 2011, 8:39 am
Posted by: virginiaknowles <virginiaknowles@...>

Dear Hope Chest friends,

I nearly forgot to send this to you!   Last year, I lost track of how many of you accessed this on my middle school blog, www.continuewellhomeschool.blogspot.com, but I know it was a big hit! Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, even though his actual birthday is January 15. I am going to show the video of the speech to my kids, and have my middle school sons go over the text and study questions with me this week. I know you can find other great resources on-line, too. My questions aren't that comprehensive but they are the ones I developed when I was teaching a home school co-op class. I'm sorry not all the links are clickable -- you might have to copy and paste them. I'm not sure what's wrong with my e-mail this morning!

I am also going to talk about this in my workshop "With Literature and Justice for All" at the 4th annual Books & Beyond conference this weekend. This year, we're featuring nationally known speakers like Debbie Strayer, Jim Weiss and Kay Ness. We've got 30 different workshop sessions to choose from, too!   If you live near Orlando, detailed workshop descriptions and registration are available online at http://www.facebook.com/l/7e525VFWoZheJ-yysuEVRrog7uA;www.nearhim.com under the Books and Beyond pull down tab. Or look for Books & Beyond on the left side of the screen at www.nearhim.com.   Please pray for those of us who are presenting or organizing this conference. While it is always exciting and fun to do this, we have consistently faced obstacles and difficulties. We know we are dependent on God's strength, protection and provision each time.

Have a lovely day, and feel free to forward this along to anyone you might know, whether they are home schooling or not!

Blessings,
Virginia Knowles

Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.

"I Have a Dream"
Speech on August 28, 1963

Watch on-line at www.mlkonline.net/video-i-have-a-dream-speech.html

(Section 1)

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the
greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand
today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a
great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in
the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long
night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years
later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of
segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the
Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of
material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in
the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And
so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the
architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and
the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which
every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes,
black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable
Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is
obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as
her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred
obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has
come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to
believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of
this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us
upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency
of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the
tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of
democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of
segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our
nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of
brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's
children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This
sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until
there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three
is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to
blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation
returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in
America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of
revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright
day of justice emerges.

(Section
2 of "I Have a Dream")

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm
threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our
rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to
satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and
hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and
discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical
violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting
physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not
lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as
evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny
is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom
is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall
always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will
you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the
victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be
satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain
lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. *We cannot
be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to
a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of
their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites
Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot
vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no,
we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls
down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and
tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of
you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you
battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police
brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Caontinue to work
with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi,
go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to
Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing
that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

(Section 3 of "I Have a
Dream")

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have
a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

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."

I have a
dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and
the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table
of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the Istate of Mississippi, a state sweltering
with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be
transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with
its governor having his lips dripping with the words of
"interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there
in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with
little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

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

(Section 4 of "I Have a
Dream")

This is our
hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone
of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of
our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will
be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail
together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one
day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children
will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet
land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died,
land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let
freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so 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 snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let
freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let
freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let
freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

>From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from
every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be
able to speed up that 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 in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free
at last!

~*~*~

In these last lines, Dr. King refers to an
old spiritual song, "Free at Last"

http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/free_at_last_from.htm

Free at last, free at last

I thank God I'm free at last

Free at last, free at last

I thank God I'm free at last

Way down yonder in the graveyard walk

I thank God I'm free at last

Me and my Jesus going to meet and talk

I thank God I'm free at last

On my knees when the light pass'd by

I thank God I'm free at last

Tho't my soul would rise and fly

I thank God I'm free at last

Some of these mornings, bright and fair

I thank God I'm free at last

Goin' meet King Jesus in the air

I thank God I'm free at last

Study Questions for

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I Have a Dream"
Speech on August 28, 1963

Section 1

1.
Who is the “great
American”? Related to that, where does
this speech take place?

2.
What does “five
score years” mean? What one word is a
synonym for this?

3.
What metaphors are
used to describe the problems that Negro Americans faced?

4.
What three
national documents are mentioned on this page, and why are they capitalized?

5.
What is a
promissory note, and what does it symbolize here?

6.
What phrase (four
words) is repeated in the paragraph which starts “It would be fatal…” What one word in the first line of that
paragraph sums up this sentiment?

Section 2

1.
That first section
ended with a stern warning to those in power that they can’t put off change any
longer. This next section starts with an
admonition to those who have been oppressed.
List at least 3 positive words to show what kind of protest King is
encouraging, and at least 3 negative words to show what he wants to avoid.

2.
“They have come to
realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.” What to does “inextricably” mean?

3.
List at least four
specific injustices, listed in this speech, that Negroes faced then.

4.
Copy the sentence
on this page which refers to Amos 5:24.

Section 3

1.
Copy the sentence
in this section which is from the Declaration of Independence.

2.
This is the
section where the phrase “I have a dream” is repeated. How many times?

3.
Summarize what it
is that King dreams.

4.
What does King
want his children to be judged for?

5.
Copy the sentence
in this section page which refers to Isaiah 40:4.

Section 4

1.
Read the lyrics to "Free at Last."

2.
What are two key words in the first paragraph of
this section? Hint: Each one is repeated
several times, and each one gives a clue to how King’s goals will come about.

3.
Copy the sentence
that refers to music. Why does King use
this word picture?

4.
King refers to
geological features several times. List
the proper nouns that refer to this, and then list the common nouns.

5.
The phrase “Let
freedom ring” is repeated for emphasis.
What word, found in the quoted verse of the song “America”, is a synonym
for freedom?

--

To subscribe, send ANY message to: [email protected]
To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: [email protected]
Visit my web site at www.VirginiaKnowles.com

Posted by: virginiaknowles <virginiaknowles@...>

Dear Hope Chest friends,

I nearly forgot to send this to you! Last year, I lost track of how many of you accessed this on my middle school blog, http://www.continuewellhomeschool.blogspot.com, but I know it was a big hit! Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, even though his actual birthday is January 15. I am going to show the video of the speech to my kids, and have my middle school sons go over the text and study questions with me this week. I know you can find other great resources on-line, too. My questions aren't that comprehensive but they are the ones I developed when I was teaching a home school co-op class. I'm sorry not all the links are clickable -- you might have to copy and paste them. I'm not sure what's wrong with my e-mail this morning!

I am also going to talk about this in my workshop "With Literature and Justice for All" at the 4th annual Books & Beyond conference this weekend. This year, we're featuring nationally known speakers like Debbie Strayer, Jim Weiss and Kay Ness. We've got 30 different workshop sessions to choose from, too! If you live near Orlando, detailed workshop descriptions and registration are available online at http://www.facebook.com/l/7e525VFWoZheJ-yysuEVRrog7uA;www.nearhim.com under the Books and Beyond pull down tab. Or look for Books & Beyond on the left side of the screen at http://www.nearhim.com. Please pray for those of us who are presenting or organizing this conference. While it is always exciting and fun to do this, we have consistently faced obstacles and difficulties. We know we are dependent on God's strength, protection and provision each time.

Have a lovely day, and feel free to forward this along to anyone you might know, whether they are home schooling or not!

Blessings,
Virginia Knowles

Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.

"I Have a Dream"
Speech on August 28, 1963

Watch on-line at http://www.mlkonline.net/video-i-have-a-dream-speech.html

(Section 1)

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the
greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand
today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a
great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in
the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long
night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years
later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of
segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the
Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of
material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in
the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And
so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the
architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and
the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which
every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes,
black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable
Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is
obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as
her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred
obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has
come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to
believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of
this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us
upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency
of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the
tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of
democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of
segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our
nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of
brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's
children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This
sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until
there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three
is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to
blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation
returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in
America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of
revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright
day of justice emerges.

(Section
2 of "I Have a Dream")

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm
threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our
rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to
satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and
hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and
discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical
violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting
physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not
lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as
evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny
is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom
is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall
always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will
you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the
victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be
satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain
lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. *We cannot
be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to
a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of
their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites
Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot
vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no,
we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls
down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and
tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of
you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you
battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police
brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Caontinue to work
with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi,
go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to
Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing
that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

(Section 3 of "I Have a
Dream")

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have
a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

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."

I have a
dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and
the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table
of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the Istate of Mississippi, a state sweltering
with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be
transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with
its governor having his lips dripping with the words of
"interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there
in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with
little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

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

(Section 4 of "I Have a
Dream")

This is our
hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone
of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of
our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will
be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail
together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one
day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children
will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet
land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died,
land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let
freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so 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 snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let
freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let
freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let
freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

>From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from
every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be
able to speed up that 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 in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free
at last!

~*~*~

In these last lines, Dr. King refers to an
old spiritual song, "Free at Last"

http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/free_at_last_from.htm

Free at last, free at last

I thank God I'm free at last

Free at last, free at last

I thank God I'm free at last

Way down yonder in the graveyard walk

I thank God I'm free at last

Me and my Jesus going to meet and talk

I thank God I'm free at last

On my knees when the light pass'd by

I thank God I'm free at last

Tho't my soul would rise and fly

I thank God I'm free at last

Some of these mornings, bright and fair

I thank God I'm free at last

Goin' meet King Jesus in the air

I thank God I'm free at last

Study Questions for

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I Have a Dream"
Speech on August 28, 1963

Section 1

1.
Who is the “great
American”? Related to that, where does
this speech take place?

2.
What does “five
score years” mean? What one word is a
synonym for this?

3.
What metaphors are
used to describe the problems that Negro Americans faced?

4.
What three
national documents are mentioned on this page, and why are they capitalized?

5.
What is a
promissory note, and what does it symbolize here?

6.
What phrase (four
words) is repeated in the paragraph which starts “It would be fatal…” What one word in the first line of that
paragraph sums up this sentiment?

Section 2

1.
That first section
ended with a stern warning to those in power that they can’t put off change any
longer. This next section starts with an
admonition to those who have been oppressed.
List at least 3 positive words to show what kind of protest King is
encouraging, and at least 3 negative words to show what he wants to avoid.

2.
“They have come to
realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.” What to does “inextricably” mean?

3.
List at least four
specific injustices, listed in this speech, that Negroes faced then.

4.
Copy the sentence
on this page which refers to Amos 5:24.

Section 3

1.
Copy the sentence
in this section which is from the Declaration of Independence.

2.
This is the
section where the phrase “I have a dream” is repeated. How many times?

3.
Summarize what it
is that King dreams.

4.
What does King
want his children to be judged for?

5.
Copy the sentence
in this section page which refers to Isaiah 40:4.

Section 4

1.
Read the lyrics to "Free at Last."

2.
What are two key words in the first paragraph of
this section? Hint: Each one is repeated
several times, and each one gives a clue to how King’s goals will come about.

3.
Copy the sentence
that refers to music. Why does King use
this word picture?

4.
King refers to
geological features several times. List
the proper nouns that refer to this, and then list the common nouns.

5.
The phrase “Let
freedom ring” is repeated for emphasis.
What word, found in the quoted verse of the song “America”, is a synonym
for freedom?

To subscribe, send ANY message to: [email protected]
To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: [email protected]
Visit my web site at http://www.VirginiaKnowles.com