Celebrating a Rule Breaker: MLK Day

4 of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most impactful speeches

Growing up in the South I don’t remember much discussion about Martin Luther King Jr.’s accomplishments in the classroom. I graduated in 1996 in a small town in southern Arkansas where until 2017 they celebrated Robert E. Lee Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the same time, allowing you to choose between a traitorous loser and one of the most influential leaders of the modern Civil Rights movement. Amazing what we used to find acceptable.

So, if you received your schooling south of the Mason Dixon line where most of your teachers likely remember the first day that an African American child entered their classroom, you may have missed out on some extremely important moments in our nation’s history.

Here are four of my favorite speeches for a little inspiration and to celebrate the accomplishments of a great leader..

I Have a Dream

Washington, DC. - August 28th, 1963

By far his most famous speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in front of 250,000 people. TRANSCRIPT

Our God is Marching On

Selma, AL. - March 25, 1965

“How long? Not long.” He delivered this speech after the historic 5-day, 54 mile march from Montgomery to Selma, AL. TRANSCRIPT

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence

Riverside Church, New York - April 4, 1967

“There can be no grea disappointment where there is no great love.” Perhaps controversial in a list of great speeches, it’s one of my favorites. Beyond the historical references, this message still resonates today in our eternal state of war. TRANSCRIPT

I’ve Been to the Mountaintop

Memphis, TN. - April 3, 1968

“Somewhere I read …” I love the invocation of the very document that his opponents so desperately attempt to use against any movement of freedom and justice for all. This is the final speech. He would be assassinated the following evening. TRANSCRIPT