It is among the most important and influential public speeches ever delivered in America – almost unarguably the most significant oration of the 20th century. But it was much more than oratory, as the Washington Post noted in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s monumental “I Have a Dream” speech. He made the speech in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28, 1963. There were other speakers that day, but it is King's that remains so vividly etched in our conscience even 50 years later.
With the approach of the golden anniversary of King's clarion call for true equality for people of color, Worcester is readying itself for a community reading to be held at noon Wednesday, Aug. 28 on the Common behind City Hall. Members of the city administration, the Human Rights Commission and the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will lead a shared reading of the 1,600-plus word speech.
“It's a really big deal,” says Jayna Turchek, the city's director of Human Rights and Disabilities. There will be people that participated in the civil rights movement. It's to celebrate what happened years ago, but also reflect upon where we are at the present and talk about where we can go.”
The event will be held just days after a march in D.C. from the Lincoln Memorial to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The New England NAACP is coordinating a bus trip that, according to Patricia Yancy, president of the Worcester chapter, is already fully booked. It is not the only step being taken to advance race relations. The local NAACP is partnering with the Initiative for Engaged Citizenship (IEC) to host two candidate forums leading up to the Nov. 5 municipal election. The first forum, for School Committee candidates, will be held Thursday, Sept. 26, 7-9 p.m., at the Worcester Public Library. The second, for at-large City Council hopefuls, will be held Wednesday, Oct. 2,7-9 p.m., also at the library. In advance of that event, the NAACP will conduct door-to-door voter registration and phone banking.
“I have a dream that 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, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there 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.”
Those lines are but a part of King's speech, but they are the most identifiable for the generations that have followed, even if the dream remains unfulfilled.
“It's a dream that we have come far along in, but still have to realize,” Yancy says. “We want to have people access opportunity in this country. It's something worth fighting for. [King] set the prototype on how we should peacefully bring our voices together to demonstrate how the inequities in our society and to bring awareness to everybody, the people who have power and the people who want a voice. It's a powerful way to educate everybody.”
Strides have been made when it comes to equality among the races, Yancy says, but she is still awaiting the day her skin color matters not.
“When my father joined the Army, it was a segregated Army,” she says. “Now I look at me and my son and the opportunities we have. We have come a long way, but still we have a long way to go. I live in a skin color and so me living in the United States is probably a different experience than everybody else. When I go into a store, it doesn't matter if I'm married to a doctor, or whatever I've accomplished educationally, or what my profession is, that's what people see when I go to different areas. I'm treated a lot of times by people that don't know me and might not be exposed to different cultures, by the color of my skin. Sometimes, I'll go into a high-end store and they'll watch me a little more closely or they'll ask questions they won't ask other people.”
The funny thing is Yancy, who is black, is mostly Japanese. “You make these assumptions, but you really don't know who you're talking to,” she says. “Everybody, even people of color, have to stop addressing and looking at color.”
Human Rights Commission Vice President Jeremy Fontain says Worcester is among the leaders in promoting equal treatment of people, regardless of skin color.
“We are a unique case in terms of the demographics,” he says. “We have many public schools that have a diverse set of cultures, you know, we have immigrants from around the globe coming here to Worcester, specifically. With regards to how people go about treating each other based upon race or cultural difference, I think Worcester is one of those hidden gems in the United States. You can see that people no longer jump to the first conclusion as to how a person is … you can see Worcester residents, having been exposed through public schooling or going out working, know that cultural or racial difference doesn't constitute the right to mistreat someone based on something so cosmetic.”
Worcester, Fontain adds, “has really led the way toward trying to show the rest of the world that there is positive outcome toward treating others equally. We may not be at a point where everybody is treated equally, but you can see in Worcester you certainly feel more comfortable with who you are.”