” I am happy to join you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago….”
These words begin the most important speech of the twentieth century. Today is Martin Luther King Day, a day to remember this courageous American leader. Because Dr. King distributed copies of his famous speech, his estate has enforced copyright to prevent its being carried on LibriVox and other places. YouTube has video of the entire speech, along with a montage sequence showing some of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It happened the year before I was born, and I’ve never seen it in it’s entirety. There is also a free MP3 at American Rhetoric.
King was assassinated on the balcony of a Memphis hotel in 1968. He had come to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers. I’m fascinated by the “I AM A MAN” signs they carried as a response to many white customers who called them “boy.” I wonder if they were letterpress printed, and who printed them.
