Monday, January 18, 2016 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Across the United States, there are marches, services, and other events honoring the legacy of Dr. King.

His accomplishments are well documented.  Dr. King’s work to advance civil rights in the United States make him one of the most influential American citizens in the country’s history.  He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered the legendary “I Have a Dream” speech, and won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.

That  “I Have a Dream” speech has a fairly unknown tie to North Carolina.  Dr. King first delivered the famous refrain in Rocky Mount.  He was giving a speech at Booker T. Washington Gym and ended it with this:

“And so my friends of Rocky Mount, I have a dream tonight.

 

It is a dream rooted deeply in the American dream.

 

I have a dream that one day down in Sasser County, Georgia, where they burned two churches down a few days ago because Negroes wanted to register and vote, one day right down there little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and little white girls and walk the streets as brothers and sisters.

 

I have a dream that one day right here in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will meet at the table of brotherhood, knowing that out of one blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth.

 

I have a dream that one day men all over this nation will recognize that all men were created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.

 

I have a dream tonight. One day the words of Amos will become real:  ‘Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.’

 

I have a dream tonight.  One day every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low.  Crooked places will be made straight, and the rough places will be made strange, the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

 

I have a dream tonight. One day men will do unto others as they would have others to do unto them.

 

I have a dream tonight. One day my little daughter and my two sons will grow up in a world not conscious of the color of their skin but only conscious of the fact that they are members of the human race.

 

I have a dream tonight that someday we will be free. We will be free.”

A North Carolina State professor launched a website called King’s First Dream to honor that first speech.

Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968.

After his death, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Congressional Gold Medeal, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a federal holiday in 1986.

Watch two of Dr. King’s most famous speeches, the 1963 “I Have a Dream Speech” from the March on Washington and 1968’s “Mountaintop” speech, which was given the night before the assassination of Dr. King.  Also, read the influential Letter from Birmingham Jail.

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