I Have A Dream Speech of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Home

This Guide provides an introduction to the speech and scholarship about it, as well as to the March on Washington of August 28, 1963.

August 28, 1963

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The Speech in Audio and Text

Listen to the Speech
From Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. Audio only.
Read the Speech
Audio and Text from a 2010 NPR article

Note: a video of the speech is no longer freely available due to copyright restrictions.

March on Washington of 1963

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The official title of the event was the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom." Labor unions were integral to its organization, evidenced here by the presence of Walter Reuther, leader of the United Automobile Workers (fourth from the left in first full row). To Reuther's right was A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, one of the nation's few black unions. Randolph also helped organize the March on Washington Movement of the early 1940's, a model for the March in 1963. Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish religious groups were also central to the organization of the March. The most prominent Catholic organization was the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice. See the program below.