Serving! Healing! Growing! Together! 2025
Super Bowl Champs Greetings everyone,
Today is a great day to be from the Delaware Valley! E-A-G-L-E-S!
As we continue our journey through Black History Month, I have been thinking about MLK’s now-famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Not many people know the key to this great American speech.
On Aug. 28, 1963, more than 250,000 Americans stood spellbound at the Lincoln Memorial as King delivered his iconic address.
While much of his speech went down in the annals of history, the most famous lines are those in which King describes his dream of a tolerant, respectful society. Amazingly, those words were ad-libbed on the spot. Dr. King and a group of advisors spent hours polishing the planned speech, and the original version was a lot more political than inspirational. In fact, it did not make any reference to dreams.
While onstage, singer Mahalia Jackson allegedly whispered to King, “Tell ‘em about the dream, Martin.” After intoning, “We are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream,” Dr. King’s talk became more of a sermon. He continued with the now-famous lines: “Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream …”
Dr. King’s speech is now considered one of the most successful and remembered speeches in American history.