Dear Editor,
Fifty years ago, the Rev Martin Luther King gave one of the most profound and inspiring speeches of all times which in a very fundamental way helped to shape the nature and course of race relations not only in the United States, but in the world at large. It was not only the content of that speech but the manner of its articulation that caused it to resonate in all corners of the world. The speech ‘I have a dream’ is embraced by peoples all over the world and is now a rallying cry for all peoples who experienced the pangs of racial and economic injustice.
I thought of reproducing excerpts of that speech delivered fifty years ago on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC for the benefit of those who may not be acquainted with the life and work of this great man. “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’
“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
“I have a dream today.”
These are indeed very profound words that continue to touch the lives of progressive peoples worldwide and the collective conscience of humanity as a whole.
Thanks to Dr King, race relations in the United States have changed for the better to a point where for the first time in its history a man of colour, in the person of Barack Obama is President of the United States of America, something unthinkable when the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King gave that inspiring speech fifty years ago.
Yours faithfully,
Hydar Ally