Dr. King Told Me About the Dream
January 18, 2010 by 50 Plus
Filed under Holidays and Celebrations, Inspiration, Videos
I’ll never forget the day that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King told me about the dream. I was a 12 year old girl in Detroit and it was June 23, 1963. My parents took my brother and sister and I to the “Walk to Freedom”, a civil rights march. We were among 125,000 people who showed up that day in support of justice and equality for all. Rev King was one of those people.
We marched down Woodward Avenue, Detroit’s “main drag”. When we got down to Cobo Hall which sits on the Detroit River, Dr. King took the podium. As he talked, the 12 year old me stood mesmerized by his words:
I have a dream.
Many of the points Dr. King made in his landmark speech in Washington, D.C. two months later, were shared with us in Detroit on that momentous day of my childhood. As I grew older, his dream became mine. As the descendant of both slaves and slave-owners from the “red hills of Georgia”, I took to heart Dr. King’s message to join together because of – and in spite of our differences.
Now as a 50 plus woman, I watch the video of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech each year on this day and recommit to a dream that, as a country, we still struggle to turn into reality. If you haven’t seen the full speech before, please take 10 minutes or so and watch this video:
