I Have a Dream | Themes

I Have a Dream Themes

Equality

The purpose behind the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and King's speech was a demand for equality for all Americans, regardless of skin color. King speaks in front of the Lincoln Memorial one hundred years after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Though the Proclamation legally freed the slaves, King argues that "one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free" because of racism and discrimination. Segregation, Jim Crow laws, fear, and violence have kept black Americans from enjoying freedom and equality, and instead "the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land." America's persistence in this inequality based solely on race is keeping the country from truly being great, King insists. He encourages those fighting for equality and freedom to continue their fight in a peaceful manner, confident in the knowledge that this collective action...
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