I've Been to the Mountaintop: Section 1: Paragraphs 1–2 Summary

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

  • To kick things off, Dr. King thanks his friend and colleague Ralph Abernathy for saying lots of really nice things about him. That's what friends are for, right?
  • Then he pays it forward by saying something nice about the audience: they've shown their resolve by coming to hear him speak even though the weather is bad.
  • Like, really bad. Like, tornadoes-were-killing-people-not-that-far-away bad. Yeah, "storm warning" is kind of an understatement.
  • But people are braving the storms for a reason: "Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world" (2.3). "What is it?" you're thinking. "I have to know." Well, it's a cliffhanger. You'll just have to wait.