Who delivered the famous 'I Have a Dream' speech in Washington in 1963?

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the famous “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C., in 1963.

He gave the speech on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Speaking from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King called for civil and economic rights, racial equality, and an end to legalized segregation. More than 250,000 people attended the demonstration.

The speech’s best-known refrain described King’s hope that the United States would fulfill its promises of equality. Its language also connected the civil rights struggle to the Emancipation Proclamation and the Declaration of Independence. Although the 1963 address became definitive, King had used similar “dream” language in earlier speeches, including a 1962 address in North Carolina and a June 1963 speech in Detroit.

A common mix-up is confusing King’s speech with other major civil rights speeches by Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, or Frederick Douglass. None of them delivered this address at the 1963 March on Washington.