Many people know that King first delivered an addresswith most of the “I Have A Dream” elements included at a big rally at Detroit’s Cobo Hall two months before the massive gathering on Aug. 28, 1963, on The Mall in Washington.
What few people realize is that King never intended to deliver his “I Have A Dream” speech – considered by some the greatest speech of the 20th Century – that day in Washington.
Accomplishing possibly the most successful on-stage pivot in U.S. history, King literally set aside his text and seamlessly improvised – on live TV and in front of 250,000 people – into the theme he expounded on June 23 in Detroit.
What is largely ignored by history is that the opening minutes of the speech at the Lincoln Memorial were fairly dry and certainly did not excite the crowd. After MLK delivered about half of the prepared text, gospel singing star Mahalia Jackson, seated on the stage, spoke out: “Tell them about ‘The Dream,’ Martin. Tell them about ‘The Dream.’”
Jackson had witnessed the Detroit speech and apparently decided her friend was missing an opportunity to deliver his most powerful message at a most important moment.
King deftly switched gears: “I still have a dream…” And the rest, as they say, is history.
The full story about that iconic moment is documented by Clarence Jones -- a lawyer, speechwriter and confidant of King who played the lead role in drafting the pre-planned speech -- in the book he recently co-wrote: "Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation."
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