Tell Them About the Dream
I learned something new this year. It turns out it isn't new news, but it is the first time I've heard it, and it has been on my mind and on my heart this week. It's about the origin of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech . I have borrowed from Timeline.org to help share this history with you, as I am still just learning the details myself...
The night before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s now famous “I Have a Dream” speech,
his advisers were arguing in the lobby of the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C. Everyone had their own idea of what should be included in the speech. Should housing discrimination be the focus? Jobs? King would only have five minutes to deliver his message at the March on Washington. Every second would count. But one of his advisers, Walter E. Fauntroy, advised him to put the time limit out of his head and “do what the spirit say do.” “My brothers, I understand,” King replied. “I appreciate all the suggestions. Now let me go and counsel with the Lord.”
In his room, he worked on the speech all night by hand, which wasn’t his usual routine. For most of his speeches, he only scribbled a few notes on the back of a church bulletin. He finished writing at 4 a.m. and handed it over to his advisers to be typed for press. Draft speech writer and friend, Clarence B. Jones, said that version was “more political and less historical.” The words “I have a dream” didn’t appear in the final version.
On Wednesday, August 28, 1963, King was the last speaker of the day. Over 250,000 people had gathered — traveling by train, bus, and car — to stand at the Lincoln Memorial for the historic moment. Before King went on, Mahalia Jackson sang “I Been ’Buked and I Been Scorned” and “How I Got Over,” to which King tapped along to the beat.
King’s speech followed the script until the end. The plan was to conclude with “Go back to our communities as members of the international association for the advancement of creative dissatisfaction.” But, spontaneously moved, he skipped that and said,“Go back to Mississippi; go back to Alabama; go back to South Carolina; go back to Georgia; go back to Louisiana; go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.”
Mahalia Jackson, being a gospel singer bred in the black church, shouted, “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” With Jackson’s encouragement, he then improvised and added some of his most recognized words today. “I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”
King went on to give his historic speech which has been the inspiration for many efforts and movements toward equality and justice ever since.
Through the prophets, through the words of Scripture, in the words and persona and work of Jesus, we have been given an image, a vision, a dream of God's Kingdom of peace, love, mercy, and justice.
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11: 6-9
There is so much in our world, in our nation, and in our lives that can lead us to a place of despair, or fear, or frustration. Too often it seems that truth and goodness and rightness and justice just can't win. But we have been given this vision of a day, of a time, of a reality, of a kingdom in which truth and goodness and peace and love are the only reality. It is a vision and a dream that we are not told to just wait patiently for, however. We are invited and expected to begin to live into that vision, to live into that dream already, and even now. To do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God. In our words, our actions, in our interactions and attitudes- in everything we do to live the vision, the dream we have been given. The world needs to see that there is something more, something different, something good and pure and right. They need to see the vision, the dream, we have. So, as we live out our lives in the now, holding the vision of the "one day" in our hearts, we are called to "tell them about the dream."
You are loved,
Pastor Cathie
