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Posts tagged as ““I Have A Dream” speech”

Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute to Top Confederate Memorial on Stone Mountain in GA

By goodblacknews on October 13, 2015

martin luther king jr
Stone Mountain in Georgia, which was once known for its Ku Klux Klan cross burnings, will soon be adding something very interesting: a tower/memorial in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The tower will feature a replica of the Liberty Bell. And accordingly it will give a literal interpretation to the line “Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia” from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
stone-mountain
The Stone Mountain Memorial Association, the authority that maintains the mountain and surrounding Stone Mountain Park, said in a statement that the “King Monument Bell” will “facilitate a more complete telling of the mountain’s history and an expansion of the park’s educational offerings.”
The statement also said additions will include a permanent museum exhibit to recognize contributions of African-American soldiers in both the Union and Confederate armies.

Though the association’s board has yet to take any formal action, its CEO, Bill Stephens, told Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jim Galloway that the King tribute is “a great addition to the historical offerings we have here.”
Galloway was instrumental in pushing for the idea.
In the aftermath of the killings of nine African-Americans at Charleston, South Carolina’s, historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June, Galloway proposed that Stone Mountain — “a three-dimensional history lesson (that) has pushed a one-sided view of America’s bloodiest conflict,” in his words — be made more representative of Southern history.
Stone Mountain, he observed, is within a predominately African-American community just outside Atlanta. The mountain and surrounding Stone Mountain Park are popular gathering spots for multicultural metro Atlanta, with much-hiked trails to the 825-foot summit and bucolic landscaping.

Get the rest of the story at CNN.
article via eurweb.com

Early Recording Found of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech

By goodblacknews on August 12, 2015

“It is awe-inspiring and gives you goosebumps on your arms,” Jason Miller, a poetry professor at North Carolina State University, told USA TODAY Network about hearing the recording for the first time.
King gave the speech on Nov. 27, 1962, before a crowd of about 1,800 people in Rocky Mount, N.C. While the Rocky Mount speech is not as well known, it includes many similarities to the famous August 1963 version King gave from the Lincoln Memorial.
The Rocky Mount speech was covered by local newspapers, but an audio recording was not known to exist until Miller found it while researching his book Origins of a Dream: Hughes’s Poetry and King’s Rhetoric. The book explores the connection between Langston Hughes’s poetry and King’s speeches.
The box where the tape was found was rusted and the plastic reel was broken, but the recording itself was in great shape and has been digitized, Miller said. The tape is 55 minutes long and includes three of King’s most famous phrases — “Let freedom ring,” “How long, not long,” and “I have a dream.”
Miller said that kind of intentional rhetorical practice is a sign of a “master orator.”  In the process of researching, Miller was able to confirm that Hughes’ work, and specifically the poem “I dream a world,” influenced King’s speeches.  “They knew each other, exchanged letters and Dr. King incredibly revered Langston Hughes,” he said.
Understanding what inspired King’s words and how they changed over time is important, according to Miller. “It sheds light on what is easily the most recognizable speech in American history,” he said.
And the message of King’s Rocky Mount speech holds up today, he said.  “The central part of Dr. King’s speech was talking about access to the ballot and voting rights,” he said. “And as you know that’s as important today as it was in 1962.”
Miller is working on an online annotated version of the Rocky Mount speech that will be published for the public in November.
article by Lori Grisham via usatoday.com

GBN Quote Of The Day

By goodblacknews on August 28, 2012

GBN Quote Of The Day: “When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
–Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from his “I Have A Dream” speech