MLK’s most famous speech almost didn’t happen. In the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at Lincoln’s feet to a crowd of over a quarter million people.
Today, we know this speech as the “I Have a Dream” speech. However, MLK had prepared to give a different speech. Thankfully, he deviated from his prepared text.
If you listen to the audio, at about 12 minutes in you’ll hear him pause as the speech transitions from his printed text to his extemporaneous riff. In the video, you’ll notice MLK no longer looks down at his text. His eyes are up. The subject matter of his speech shifts to the Dream.
It’s a powerful moment.
As Clearance Jones and Stewart Connelly retell in their book “Behind the Dream,” King had in fact given his Dream speech before but hardly anyone registered anything noteworthy or exceptional about that previous version.
The confluence of the words, the speaker, the audience, and the moment–as well as Mahalia Jackson as we’ll see–elevated the power of speech to historic impact. Jones and Connelly write it “was the perfect storm.”
Clearance Jones should know. He had helped Martin write the prepared speech that he was supposed to give that day. When King deviated, Jones knew.
What Jones saw and heard, as Martin had made his way into roughly the seventh paragraph of the speech, was Mahalia Jackson, King’s favorite gospel singer who was standing a few feet away, shouting to him.
Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer. Hugo van Gelderen / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
King had just finished saying, “We cannot turn back.” He then paused, which was not unusual for his years of honing his rhythm as a Baptist minister.
Mahalia called out, “Tell ’em about the ‘Dream,’ Martin, tell ‘am about the ‘Dream!'” Few people heard her, but Jones did. In that moment, King’s speech shifts.
Jones watched King push aside the prepared text. “I have a dream” never appeared in what he submitted.
Recognizing the moment that was about to come, Jones looked at the person standing next to him. “These people out there today don’t know it yet, but they’re about ready to go to church.”
Read Jones and Connelly’s book for the rest of the story. I highly recommend it. I also refer to this great moment in my book as well.