I Have a Dream: Race Quotes

You can't really talk about America without talking about racism and slavery. For almost a hundred years after the American Revolution, slavery was the norm for half the country. The intense metaphorical imagery in this speech hammers home how much human suffering slavery caused. Burning is about the most intense metaphor for suffering out there.

Technically the Declaration of Independence does talk about "all men" being created equal. What that really meant at the time can be debated. First of all, the statement totally leaves out women (half the population). Second, the Constitutional Convention determined that slaves, the largest portion of "black" people in the country, only counted as three fifths of a person. (Source) "I Have a Dream" interprets those words in a way that makes sense for the 1960s. It's like historical analysis in front of 200,000 people.

This punchy line reminds the audience that everyone needs to step in to bring about a change in race relations. African Americans and whites had to both be in the game—you can't run a relay with one person. There were thousands of white people at the March on Washington participating in the Civil Rights Movement. Other whites supported the movement in principle, but didn't do much to participate

The most quoted words of the entire Civil Rights Movement. This line imagines a future without racism. That goal sounded like science fiction in the 1960s. Since then, there have been major improvements along the lines of minority rights and upward mobility, but racism still lingers.

Focusing on children makes the audience think of segregated schools, a cornerstone of Jim Crow. White parents of the era would often separate their children. Losing a white playmate was a formative experience for MLK himself. (Source)