We all know Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech–it’s remembered nearly every January, when we celebrate the federal holiday dedicated to the civil rights activist. The speech, delivered at the 1963 March on Washington, will celebrate its 50th anniversary in August.
It turns out August 1963 wasn’t the first time that King delivered that speech. A few months earlier, on June 23, Dr. King led more than 100,000 people in a march through Detroit – known as the Freedom Walk – where he gave his “I Have a Dream” speech for the first time.
Journalist Tony Brown, host of the online show “Tony Brown’s Journal,” coordinated Dr. King’s 1963 Freedom Walk in Detroit and witnessed the original “Dream” speech. He discusses the original speech and his realization that the words he heard that day would become part of American history.
Click here to listen to King’s original speech.