Theater, Luther King, takes a more optimistic tone be reiterating that the “bank of justice” does not lack funds.Īdditionally, he claims that there is a sense of urgency in their mission. To be precise, his words were, “America has given the negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked insufficient funds.” King laments that America has defaulted on the check whereby black citizens have been deprived of these rights. That everybody has unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and this encompasses both black and white men. He states that when the constitution was Drafted and the declaration of independence made, the nation’s founders were Drafting a promissory note to each American. Instead, they are seriously “crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” Additionally, he points out the poverty that blacks have had to persevere. He proclaims that it is “joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.” After that, he delves into the issues faced by African Americans in the year 1963, claiming that over 100 years later, they still lack freedom. King commemorates the signing of the emancipation proclamation a hundred years before the march by Abraham Lincoln. He opens his speech by stating his delight in bei9ng together with the empathizers, and those who turned out for the march. Within this speech, Luther King expressed his notorious conviction and the hope he has for America as well as the need to have changed.
King narrated this speech at the Lincoln Memorial in the city of Washington, D.C. The aim was to advocate for equal rights in access to freedoms and jobs.
It is considered one of his most famous speeches delivered in Washington, March 1963.