Read Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech, or parts of it, to set the tone for any projects celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or the Civil Rights Movement.  He delivered this speech on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.  Millions of Americans watched him speak on TV.  His dream was for all Americans to be treated equally. 

Dr. King's I Have A Dream Speech

This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy; now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice; now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood; now is the time to make justice a reality for all God's children.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the brightday of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people. . . In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. . . Awe must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. . . The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed -- we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi . . . will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama . . . little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. . . With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning -- my country tis of the; sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing . . . So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire . . . from the mountains of New York . . . from the curvaceous slopes of California . . . let freedom ring. . . and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children -- black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last.