The August 24 March on Washington this past weekend commemorated
the 1963 March, which culminated in the first Civil Rights Act, passed in 1964,
but the actual 50th anniversary is today, August 28, 2013. Fifty years ago today Martin Luther King
delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech (http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf),
which, along with Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm),
is perhaps the best known piece of political oratory in American history.
King directly ties his speech to the American Dream and
reminds us how that dream has been denied to most African Americans since they
first set foot on American soil.
When we think of the American Dream, most of us think first
of economic prosperity, or, or at least the opportunity to achieve it. We think of “the land of opportunity,” as
countless immigrants have seen us, and the “rags to riches” myth of upward
social mobility. I say “myth” because,
while it captures a universal aspiration and is a widespread belief, its
reality has been denied to as many, probably more, than have achieved it,
however hard-working and virtuous they may have been.
Yet the American Dream represents more than economic
success; it also stands for political freedom, social equality, and personal
fulfillment. And King’s speech
references those values as much, even more, than it does the dream of material
prosperity.
If it is as famous as the Gettysburg Address, what
characteristics does it share with Lincoln’s best known speech? They both rest on what might be better called
the American Promise than the American Dream.
They both expressly quote from the Declaration of Independence that “all
men are created equal,” and King cites the “unalienable rights of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
While Lincoln does not name the blight of slavery, he ties
the principle of equality to “the unfinished work which those who fought here
have so nobly advanced,” “the great task remaining before us,” and “our
increased devotion to that great cause” for which so many have died. Lincoln calls for “a new birth of
freedom.” Without saying so directly, he
frames the Civil War as a struggle to fulfill that original promise of full
political and social equality.
King, on the other hand, directly names the failures of that
promise a century after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in
1863—“segregation,” “discrimination,” “poverty,” and “police brutality.” But, like Lincoln, he calls for a new resolve
to fulfill the original promise of the American Dream—the promise of “liberty
and justice for all.”
Both speakers are addressing but half the nation, Lincoln,
the Union, still in the midst of war with the Confederacy; and King, African
Americans and their white allies in the grip of struggle with segregationists
and white supremacists.
King’s audience consists of both African Americans and white
supporters. He can use “our” and “we”
when referring to their shared values and civil rights struggle, but often
refers to African Americans in third person when referring to their experiences
of racial injustice. He sets aside a
part of his speech to acknowledge “our white brothers,” who have come to
realize that “their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.” And the dream is expressed in terms of full
inclusion for all, not only in the segregationist South, but also in “our
Northern cities,” “the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire,” “the mighty
mountains of New York,” and “the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.”
“Our” and “we” shift back and forth from civil rights supporters to African
Americans to all Americans.
Lincoln makes no reference to the enemies of freedom and
equality in the slave-holding South. The
lines of war are clearly drawn and well understood. His focus throughout his speech is the noble
ideal of the Union cause. The ignoble
cause of the Confederacy is merely implied by unspoken comparison.
King, on the other hand, is concerned, not only with the
legal segregation of the South but with the “slums and ghettoes” of the
North. And while he invokes the history
of slavery and the “vicious racists” in the South, his dream is large enough to
include all Americans sitting together “at the table of brotherhood,” joining
hands “as sisters and brothers.” He
includes segregationists and racists in his dream of “all God’s children,”
including blacks and whites, “Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics”
singing together as equals “the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at
last, Free at last, Great God Almighty, We are free at last.”
Thus as Lincoln transcends the divisions of the Civil War by
focusing on the ideal of a nation united in freedom and equality, so King
transcends the divisions of race by focusing on a dream that is all inclusive,
even to the point of including white people in the words of a Negro spiritual.
The language of the two speeches is very different. Lincoln’s is more solemn and stately, as
befitting the dedication of a national cemetery, and more abstract, as
befitting, perhaps, the more ceremonial occasion. King’s language is more concrete,
metaphorical, poetic, emotive, and rousing as he seeks to mobilize a movement
in pursuit of legal redresses for a long history of suffering. Lincoln is not making an abolitionist speech,
but rather seeking to strengthen Union resolve to see the war through to its
end. King does not have the standing of
national office from which to speak and must use his language to establish
himself as a credible leader and to inspire his followers by putting memorable
words to the dream in all their hearts.
Lincoln uses the language of a civic leader while King uses
that of a preacher and an activist. Yet
their argument is the same: the American
Promise remains unfulfilled and its realization is worthy of sacrifice. Our nation’s greatness, our nation’s future,
and our nation’s endurance depend upon it.
Both also see themselves as renewing the original American
Promise, both invoking the Declaration of Independence, King invoking the
Emancipation Proclamation. Taken
together the two speeches mark historical milestones in the ongoing effort to
realize the Dream.
