Dick Gregory On MLK Jr.'s "I Have A Dream Speech"

"People all around the world listened to our leaders speak, among them Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His 'I Have A Dream' speech went out all over the world. It was the first time people heard him speak internationally. People who were at the march or those who listened to the speech carefully got his real message, but others even today don't understand what he really talked about that day. His famous line, 'I have a dream,' was actually a closing remark that the press picked up on and has held onto for the past 37 years. They held onto that phrase because it was the safe part of King's speech. Everyone in America should go out and get a copy of that speech. I was there, and what he clearly said was that it was the one-hundreth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and America had written Black folks a bad check. King had come to Washington to cash that 100-year-old check. He wanted to collect for all of Black America, not discuss a dream. The press entitled his speech, 'I Have A Dream,' and he copyrighted the speech with that title to prevent people from doing whatever they wanted to do with it. But he should have called it 'America's Bad Check,' because that was his message." -From, "Callus On My Soul" By: Dick Gregory