"We Are Not Afraid" Revisiting the Life and Work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Good day, my fellow Americans and my fellow citizens of Planet Earth. We have gathered today to hear one of the greatest orators in the history of our species. He has let it be known that he has something of epochal importance to impart.... and we have gathered in our billions to hear it. I do not overstate the case when I say "billions", for Dr. King's audience today is composed of more people than any other event in human history. Why so many? They know this man... They respect his vision... He has helped them before, and they feel certain he will help them again, touching their hearts, changing their lives, soothing their troubled spirits. "I Have A Dream" The last time he called us together was August 28th, 1963, for what came to be known as the "I Have A Dream" Speech. He reminded us that without dreams there can be no progress and without progress the people suffer and die, tragic evidence of our undeniable culpability. That was a great day for dreamers and visionaries across the globe; a day when light replaced darkness for so many and millions felt hope for the first time in their challenged and overburdened lives; blessed at last by "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness"; mere words no longer but active possibilities to be used and enjoyed. "Sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation." Consider the man and his titanic mission. An entire race danced noxious attendance upon an anxious majority of the population; the one determined to preserve its superior position; the other oppressed and fearful they would make even some trivial error against the baleful Jim Crow system of profound segregation, thereby calling upon them their "betters" certain and severest retribution. Trust between the races was non-existent; cooperation unknown; amity as fleeting as a frosty smile that didn't last. The richest soil of the nation produced only a bumper crop of fear, hatred, and the "strange fruit" of premature death and hideous dis-figuration, no one safe, black or white, north or south, day or night, no matter how acquiescent or careful. Let us now consider this man and the responsibility he shouldered, always at terrible risk. He was in the prime of his productive life when he heard and took to heart the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."