The question of when King would speak during the march was also a thorny one. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and his impact as the leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King Jr.: A look back in historyĪ look at Dr. I had simply put it into textual form in case he wanted to use that to reference in putting his speech together.” “It was merely a summary of what we had discussed before. “What I was writing was not my original writing,” Jones says. Jones didn’t see the final draft.Īs King made his way through the first several paragraphs of the speech, Jones realized King had not changed a word he had written. As was customary in their relationship of speechwriter and speech-giver, King took the draft to tweak it and make his own. A short time later, he delivered his draft to King. The night before the march, in a cordoned-off area of the Willard Hotel lobby, a final meeting was planned to go over the final details of King’s speech.Īccording to Jones, along with he and King, the other attendees at the meeting were Cleveland Robinson, Walter Fauntroy, Bernard Lee, Ralph Abernathy, Lawrence Reddick and Bayard Rustin.Īfter a vigorous debate in which Jones took notes, he went to his hotel room and turned his notes into words King could recite. “We felt that Martin had an obligation to provide leadership, offering a vision that we were involved in action not activity a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges we faced and a road map of how we could best meet those challenges,” Jones, who also served as King’s draft speechwriter, wrote in his book, “Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation.”
Jones, attorney for Martin Luther King, Jr. In early July, when it was clear the march would happen, Jones and Levinson met with King regularly and were tasked with drafting a framework for the speech. Jones and New York businessman Stanley Levinson. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial may have never been spoken.Īmong King’s inner circle were two people he spoke with virtually every day: his attorney Clarence B. WASHINGTON – If not for two spontaneous, subtle, impeccably-timed acts, the iconic phrase “I Have a Dream” delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. This article originally appeared on on August 23, 2013. True story behind MLK's 'I Have A Dream' speech (WTOP's Thomas Warren)
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