MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, stirred the concern and sparked the conscience of his generation. African-American and white people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for peaceful civil rites protest. At that time, the event was a turning point and MLK’s tactics of protest was the right prescription for our country. He provided the nation with a road map so that all people could share together the abundance of this democracy. The words he led his marches by brought significant changes in the fabric of American life through his courage and selfless devotion.
MLK gave people of his and future generation hope and sense of dignity. To him the past was not dead but a place to search ideas like that of Thoreau’s Essay on Civil Disobedience and Mahatma Gandhi’s speeches. MLK also believed that men had the right to disobey unjust laws and gladly go to jail when they break such laws. "Fill the jails," Gandhi said. However — never use violence. Violence only brings about more hate and more violence. Gandhi called this "war without violence." It helped India gain its freedom and MLK later used these tactics. His charismatic leadership later inspired men and women, in this nation and around the world during his time.
His philosophy of nonviolent direct action, and his strategies for rational and non-destructive social change, galvanized the conscience of this nation and reordered its priorities forever. MLK helped remove the unconditional status Africans were forced into living. The power his nonviolence message and the appeal of his movement brought thousands of people, both Black and White, to his camp. Not all this is part of the past because it still occurs in many places like Africa. It was his wisdom, his words, his actions, his commitment, and his dream for a new way of life that continually intertwines with the American experience.
MLK, within a span of thirteen years, did something that changed the way America viewed and treated a portion of its citizens, who were historically faced with racist, restrictive laws as part of their daily living. One day everyone will live his dream of equality. Although he has been gone for years, his words from his “I Have a Dream” speech will never be dead nor past. As he once said, "there is a certain kind of fire that no water can put out”, and that fire is still burning.
