MLK, Jr.

And I wondered all the way to work: What songs are so important to me that I would spontaneously include their lyrics in a speech to over 200,000 people?

 

Each year, I teach about Martin Luther King, Jr. I teach about the timbre of his voice, the circumstances in which he was raised, the importance of music in his life, and the impact of his life in general. Because it is the most recognizable and the most widely written about of his speeches, I focus on his “I Have A Dream” speech, although this year, I have expanded to include excerpts from his “We Shall Overcome” speech.

 

Over the years, I have learned so much about MLK, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. It has truly fascinated me and given me goose bumps on many occasions. For instance, did you know that Martin didn’t plan to give his “I Have A Dream” speech that day in Washington? Yes. He was slated to speak at the march. In fact, he agreed to speak during the last spot of the day because no one else wanted it—they figured the crowd would have dissipated and the cameras would have gone home. But he hadn’t prepared a speech that was full of his dreams. It wasn’t until Mahalia Jackson hollered out, “Tell ‘em about the dream, Martin,” that he digressed from his written comments and spoke what has become his legacy. While you can’t hear Mahalia Jackson saying this on the recording of the full speech, you CAN see where he stops looking down at his notes and you can hear where his voice changes into something truly inspired. It’s really quite remarkable.

 

What’s more, in his five minutes of extemporaneous passion, Martin Luther King, Jr. mentions the lyrics of not one but two different songs! He quotes the entirety of “My Country Tis of Thee (America)” and uses the last phrase, “Let freedom ring,” as a springboard for most of the rest of his speech. And he quotes the chorus of “Free At Last.”

 

“…And when we allow freedom to ring…We will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last!’” *figuratively drops mic and walks away* I absolutely love this!

 

And this leads me back to the question that I pondered all the way to work: What songs are so important to me that I would spontaneously include their lyrics in a speech to over 200,000 people?

 

For MLK, Jr. it was “My Country Tis of Thee” and “Free at Last.”

 

For me? It’s…

 

For you?...

 

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 

And by the way…Did you know that “Free At Last” was such an important song to MLK, Jr. that the words are printed on his tombstone? Powerful, huh?