Mlk Dream facts

While investigating facts about Mlk Dream, I found out little known, but curios details like:

6 of the most famous speeches in history; Eisenhower's "military–industrial complex", JFK's "ask not what your country can do", "we choose to go to the moon", Mandela's "I am prepared to die", JFK's "ich bin ein Berliner", and MLK's "I have a dream" were made within 2 years of each other.

James Earl Ray, MLK's assassin, was accidentally honored in a Florida plaque supposed to be celebrating James Earl Jones during an MLK Day event. Officials received their plaque and were horrified to discover that it bore an inscription thanking James Earl Ray for “keeping the dream alive”.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 16 of the best facts about Mlk Dream I managed to collect.

1. MLK added the "I have a dream" part DURING the speech, it wasn't planned

2. MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech was improvised on the spot in response to a supporter's shout to "tell them about the dream".

3. MLK's assassin James Earl Ray was once erroneously honored during a Lauderhill, Florida parade which was intended to praise the actor James Earl Jones. The town also accidentally created a plaque in January 2002 which read 'Thanks James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive'.

4. MLK Jr. regretted his "I have a dream" speech after witnessing the violence in Vietnam and the disdain against black people in the US, calling it naive. 3 months later he was assassinated.

5. MLK first gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in Detroit 2 months before the famous Washington speech

6. There was a proposal to put a Bell in honor of MLK on the Confederate/KKK shrine at Stone Mountain as a reference to the line in the "I have a Dream" speech when he says "Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain in Georgia". The proposal was rejected.

7. MLK's famous "I Have a Dream" speech is not in public domain. The rights are owned by his family's estate. This has created restrictions on the speech's distribution.

8. The Star Wars Soundtrack is in the National Recording Registry - along with MLK "I Have a Dream", D-Day Radio Broadcast, Purple Rain & 471 others

9. In 2002 a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, FL tried to honor actor James Earl Jones but mixed up his name with James Earl Ray, the assassin of MLK Jr. The plaque read: "Thanks James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive"

What is true about mlk dream?

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Elvis, two months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, recorded a live tribute song featuring direct quotes of MLK called "If I Can Dream" and overruled his manager to perform it as the finale to his comeback special over "I'll Be Home for Christmas"

In 2010 a US Navy destroyer was commissioned, named the USS Gravely in honor of the first black Admiral, Samuel L. Gravely. In 1961 he became the first black officer to command a U.S. Navy ship. (MLK's I Have A Dream speech occurred four years later in 1965) - source

In January 2016 University of Oregon college students debated permanently removing MLK’s ‘I Have a Dream’ quote from a student center because it was not fully inclusive. The quote eventually did go back up though not in time for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. - source

James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating MLK, was mistaken for James Earl Jones during a parade in which he was honored with a plaque that read "Thanks James Earl Ray, for keeping the dream alive."