Tag Archives: martin luther king

Paul Walter

Martin Luther King: How the dream speech wasn’t planned

By Paul Walter | Fri 20th October 2017 - 5:25 pm

Embed from Getty Images
It was one of the most famous speeches ever made and led to two major pieces of Civil Rights legislation in the USA.

Yet, in issue 1277 of the Big Issue, author Philip Collins tells how Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech” on August 28th 1963 in The Mall, Washington DC, wasn’t planned as it happened.

Continue reading »
Posted in LDVUSA | Also tagged | 6 Comments
Paul Walter

This single photograph shows an amazing crucible of American history

By Paul Walter | Tue 17th October 2017 - 10:25 am


This is the fifteenth of my posts based on a recent tour of the eastern half of the USA. I visited a number of sites relevant to African American history. To mark Black History Month, I am relating some of the things I saw, in the order I saw them.

Without any doubt, the highlight of my USA tour was my visit to Mongomery, Alabama. To coin a phrase of Stephen Fry’s, for someone interested in history, it was like swimming through liquid chocolate. Within half a mile of the State Capitol, there are a clutch of historic sites which bore witness to some of the most seminal events in the history of the USA.

Continue reading »
Posted in LDVUSA | Also tagged , , , and | 4 Comments
Paul Walter

The home where Martin Luther King’s family were bombed

By Paul Walter | Fri 13th October 2017 - 1:25 pm



This is the thirteenth of my posts based on a recent tour of the eastern half of the USA. I visited a number of sites relevant to African American history. To mark Black History Month, I am relating some of the things I saw, in the order I saw them.

In Montgomery, Alabama I visited the Dexter Parsonage Museum (photo above) – which was the home of Dr Martin Luther King Jr during the Montgomery Bus Boycott (of which more in a latter post). Dr King lived here with his family from 1954 to 1960. It is preserved with the furnishings and household things as per that period.

Continue reading »
Posted in LDVUSA | Also tagged , and | Leave a comment
Paul Walter

Splendid memorial to Dr Martin Luther King Junior in Washington DC

By Paul Walter | Tue 10th October 2017 - 10:47 am

This is the tenth of my posts based on a recent tour of the eastern half of the USA. I visited a number of sites relevant to African American history. To mark Black History Month, I am relating some of the things I saw, in the order I saw them.

In Washington DC, I was lucky enough to stay in a neighbourhood where the people were extremely friendly and welcoming. But it is true that the centre of “DC”, as it is almost universally called in the States, is odd. It consists of virtually all federal buildings of some sort or another, plus a lot of monuments. In fact there are so many monuments that, after a couple of days, I had definitely reached “peak monument”.

Continue reading »
Posted in LDVUSA | Also tagged , , and | 2 Comments
NewsHound

‘I have a dream’ speech on Radio 4

By NewsHound | Mon 26th August 2013 - 12:43 pm

martin-luther-king-jrThis Wednesday the BBC will be marking the 50th Anniversary of  the March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s  ‘I have a dream’ speech’ with a special programme at 9am on Radio 4.

The entire speech will be read by 19 well-known human rights activists, including Maya Angelou, Doreen Lawrence, Mary Robinson, Malala Yousafzai and the Dalai Lama. You can see the full list of readers here.

The programme will be repeated at 2.30pm on BBC World Service, or you can, of course, catch up on i-Player.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

Even Martin Luther King repeated the same message

By Mark Pack | Mon 31st August 2009 - 9:20 am

Plugging away with the same message time after time may sound the obvious way to get your message over, but think how often discussions about what should go in a leaflet revolve around coming up with new things to say – or how when you look through the collection of leaflets from a campaign some people complain, “But they all said the same thing!”.

So let’s look at Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech: an amazing piece of oratory and, surely, if you can utter such moving words, you don’t need to repeat them time and again? Well, no …

Continue reading »
Posted in LDVUSA and News | 2 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Chloe
    The hubris that was around in 2016 & 2019 is making a comeback. I wonder what's changed for this careerist.... https://x.com/andyburnham/status/806563566...
  • David Evans
    cim, The one thing too many Lib Dems don't understand fully is what is meant by the word balance. That is the key and is the opposite of dogma - which is where...
  • Slamdac
    Sorry I should have said £150,569 after 14 years. It is still a massive amount of taxpayer's money. I think they get paid more than enough. There is only a ...
  • Slamdac
    Any return to Freedom of Movement or the Single Market will require a Referendum of British Citizens, otherwise there is nothing stopping a future Conservative ...
  • Matt (Bristol)
    Oops, Richard Cripps not Roger Billins....