Gimme That Freedom
- Here we go. Like a massive chopper of freedom revving its engine, the speech fires up for the theme of MLK's "dream."
- The dream section includes six riffs on the subject, which address the following:
- Living up to the words of the Declaration of Independence: "all men are created equal" (12.1).
- Sons of former slaves and former slave-owners sitting down at "the table of brotherhood" (13.1).
- Mississippi will become an "oasis of justice and freedom" (14.1).
- People will be judged on their character, not their skin color (this might be the most famous and oft-quoted line of the speech).
- Alabama will end segregation in the public sector.
- The Lord will be revealed in glory. This idea is not so much about race as about a Biblical revelation—something like a Second Coming of tolerance.
- Next, a profession of faith. MLK says that faith is what will make the dreams of the Civil Rights Movement come true.
- An allusion to "America the Beautiful": MLK hopes the words "let freedom ring" (19.2) will take on a new meaning in a future age of equality.
- He names all the mountainous places that freedom should ring, with some evocative geographical vocab, like "the snow-capped Rockies" (20.5).
- The famous ending of the speech: a vision of "all God's children" (21.1) joining hands like the Whos of Whoville joining hands at the ending of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.