Racial Injustice: King's Call for Immediate Change

In Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” King repeatedly emphasizes that awareness needs to be raised about discrimination and racial injustice within society. When discussing the Emancipation Proclamation being signed 100 years prior he says, “But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination”(King 6). He believes that the efforts taken by past government leaders were failures and that further actions need to take place to truly transform society within America. MLK also says, “now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valleys of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice”(King 22). By saying this, he believes that now is the time to end racial injustice and segregation and that a change must happen immediately. King strongly believes that the only way to produce a cultural transformation is to

King is one of the main reasons that for the most part, whites and blacks are treated mostly equal in society. However, throughout history sports have also played a monumental role in society ending segregation and accepting African Americans as equals. Both pieces agree that during the time period where racism was at the forefront of political issues, that change needed to happen immediately and could not wait any longer. Both pieces also indirectly portray the question, “If blacks and whites are supposedly equal, then why are they not treated equal?” This is interesting because it is a topic that has been an issue and will continue to be an issue in society. MLK’s speech along with the integration of African Americans into sports caused a tremendous change in how black individuals are treated in American