more than a dream

Today, August 28, is the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, a pivotal event in the 1960s civil rights movement at which Martin Luther King Jr gave his galvanising “I have a dream” speech. The 1963 march brought more than 250,000 people to Washington. 

But that speech was not some wistful, hopeful desire for a “colour-blind” America as it is often portrayed today. It was a call for justice, for white Americans to consciously and intentionally join the cause for racial justice – and to see the fight for freedom for all Americans as intrinsically linked with our own. King’s speech was a call to action – one that reverberates to this day.

“We have also come to his 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.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963

The work of justice is not done. Sadly, some of the progress made in the last 60 years is being wiped away by a small but noisy minority who are counting on people to be lulled asleep by "the tranquilizing drug of gradualism."

Throughout the Civil Rights movement, Rev. King often, correctly, lamented the silence of white ministers. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” was addressed directly to “My Dear Fellow Clergymen” as he wrote of broken promises and the obstacle of “the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice.”

Too many people hear King’s speech as “I have a complaint”! Of course, it wasn’t and the difference between a “compliant” and a “dream” is profound. There are many things we can complain about and protest against. 

It is easy to complain but it is in dreaming that people bring about social change. Dreaming is about imagining how change looks. The Bible told us this a long, long time ago; “your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams” [Joel 2:28 quoted in Acts 2:17].

Here's the full speech