"I have a dream", by Martin Luther King, is a well known liberation speech. I agree
with King's thesis: Life, Liberty and equality will only be accomplished when the society
changes their beliefs to accomodate everyone, regardless of race, color and origin. Like a
snowfall that begins with a few uncertain flakes, thickens gradually into flurries, and then
becomes a blizzard, the words of this very speech acted as the impetus behind the freedom
of black Americans.
The black people are a noteable part of American society. Even though the
Emancipation Proclamation was signed, the Negro is "still badly crippled by the manacles of
segregation and the chains of discrimination". That is a natural enough assumption. I leaned
towards it myself when I started reading the essay. With the world tuning into the 20th
century, people tend to assume that the blacks are a slave race and it is acceptable to treat
them like one. It does not seem axiomatic that if Whites and blacks get along better and all
races, blacks and whites especially, land at any motels, vote together and "sit down together
at the table of brotherhood", that the ways of life of both Blacks and whites is growing
similar. I can even coin a name for it: convergence, to come together and unite in a common
interest. Blacks and whites should converge, according to King, because the life of both races
is inter connected. At almost every turn every turn of American History since the signing of
the emancipation proclamation, blacks have sought confirmation for the the hope that the
harsh prejudices built by whites will erode. In conclusion, Life will change for the blacks only
when the society accomodates everyone.
According to the Emancipation Proclamation, all men, regardless of race, were
guaranteed the unalienable rights of equality. All men are created equal. But the Negro
"cannot gain lodging in...