On August 28, 1963, a crowd of about 250,000 people filled the National Mall in Washington, D.C., stretching from the Lincoln Memorial all the way back to the Washington Monument. They had come from every state in the country, riding buses, trains, and even walking for days. It was the largest civil rights gathering in American history, and they were there to demand jobs, justice, and equal rights for Black Americans.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the last speaker of the day. He stood at the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looked out over the sea of faces, and began reading from his prepared notes. Then, halfway through, the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, standing nearby, called out, 'Tell them about the dream, Martin!' Dr. King pushed his papers aside and spoke from the heart. 'I have a dream,' he said, '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.'
His voice rolled across the crowd, building like music. He spoke of children of every color holding hands as sisters and brothers. The crowd cheered, wept, sang. The speech was carried live on television and beamed around the world. It helped push Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act the very next year, outlawing segregation. Sixty years later, Dr. King's words are still some of the most quoted in American history. School kids memorize them, leaders repeat them, and on every August 28, the country pauses to remember the dream.
