FREE ESSAY ON DREAMS LIVE ON

DREAMS LIVE ON

The Dream Lives On
In 1950's America, the equality of man envisioned by the Declaration of Independence was
far from a reality. People of color, blacks, Hispanics, Orientals, were discriminated
against in many ways, both overt and covert. The 1950's were a turbulent time in America,
when racial barriers began to come down due to Supreme Court decisions, like Brown v.
Board of Education; and due to an increase in the activism of blacks, fighting for equal
rights.
Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, was a driving force in the push for racial
equality in the 1950's and the 1960's. In 1963, King and his staff focused on Birmingham,
Alabama. They marched and protested non-violently, raising the ire of local officials who
sicced water cannon and police dogs on the marchers, whose ranks included teenagers and
children. The bad publicity and break-down of business forced the white leaders of
Birmingham to concede to some anti-segregation demands.
Thrust into the national spotlight in Birmingham, where he was arrested and jailed, King
organized a massive march on Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. On the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial, he evoked the name of Lincoln in his I Have a Dream speech, which is
credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights
Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This speech, which caused a
social revolution within the United States has gone down as one of those speeches that
will always be remembered in history.