An Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Dream Speech

Martin Luther King Jr. gave his well known dream speech on the twenty eighth of August, 1963. However, this was not his first speech at the Lincoln Memorial. King spoke there six years earlier and “was among the civil rights leaders who spoke in the shadow of the Great Emancipator during the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom on May 17, 1957.” (Klein 1) This lesser known speech dwarfs in comparison to the powerful dream described on the twenty eighth of August. Although some believe MLK’s dream has been achieved, in reality this is not true. This is evident because most Americans do not think his dream has been achieved, there is still a large racial wealth gap in the US, and the multitude of police brutality incidents against people of color.The powerful words utilized in King's address should have inspired greater action than has been taken in the fifty two years

since.
About half, or “51%” (Craighill 1), of Americans believed MLK’s dream had been achieved in December 2009. This number has gone drastically down since. Now just “34 percent, say the “dream” cited in King’s famous Lincoln Memorial speech has been realized” (Craighill 1). The majority of the American public does not believe the dream has been achieved. There are simply too many things wrong with our world today for the dream to have been completely realized. African Americans, or “13.2%” (US Census Bureau 1), of the nation definitely have worthy cause to not see King’s dream as fulfilled.

In the dream speech, MLK mentions that “the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty” (King).

There is a huge racial wealth gap in the US. “The average white household has wealth totaling $113,149 compared with total wealth of just $5,677 in the typical African American household.” (Craighill 1).White households have a total wealth 100k more than black households. Black Americans are truly living on “[a] lonely island of poverty” (King). Not only are African Americans living in poverty, they are suffering through horrendous violence.
Police brutality is on the rise in relation to people of color. US President Barack Obama has called these police confrontations a “slow rolling crisis”(Wines and Cohen 1) and describes them as occurring “once a week now” (Wines and Cohen 1). Police brutality is defined as “the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians” (Law Dictionary 1) This is absolutely what is happening to individuals such as Freddy Gray and Michael Brown. In order for King's dream to be achieved, these incidences not only need to be reduced but need to be

eradicated.
On the other hand some people say King's dream of equality has been achieved. This point of makes sense because over half or “65%” (Craighill 1) of African Americans believed his dream had been achieved in January 2009. However this is untrue because January 2009 was the time of Barack Obama's Inauguration and has now fallen back to “36%” (Craighill 1).
Most Americans know of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream speech. Most know that it speaks of a free America where everybody is equal, black or white. However, due to a wide racial wealth gap and frequent instances of police brutality, most Americans believed this world is not our current one. This can and will change if not a few, but all Americans come together and appreciate and act on Kings hallowed words.