A Different Martin Luther King Speech

Back in 1999 David Bowie told a bemused BBC journalist that this thing called the Internet would transform music, making it less about the performer and far more about relationships between performers and audience. And he was right. So with great speeches. They are a conversation between speaker and listeners. The speaker does most of the actual talking. But by together addressing smart arguments and thinking about how to act on key principles, speaker and audience create a sense of dynamic intimacy. Dr. Martin Luther King’s momentous Dream speech of course achieved that and much more. Let’s look at another speech he gave six years earlier in St Louis, to a Freedom Rally of 8,000 people. Hard though it is to grasp now, in 1957 the United States still had myriad apartheid-style laws enforcing racial segregation. Dr. King wanted that injustice swept away. But he wanted the sweeping done with integrity and grace. His speech was a massive production: over 6,000 words, or nearly an hour. One stark question defined its structure:

I want to try to grapple with a question on the lips of men and women all over this nation: “Are we really making any progress?”

He deftly juxtaposes extreme optimism with extreme pessimism:

The extreme optimist and the extreme pessimist have at least one thing in common: they both agree that we must sit down and do nothing.

The extreme optimist says do nothing because integration is inevitable. The extreme pessimist says do nothing because integration is impossible.

He opts for what he calls realism:

We have come a long way, but we have a long long way to go.

He rehearses the history of slavery, and describes how step by painful step things have changed. He wins applause with his light touch:

We have been able to see old man segregation on his deathbed. And I’m sure most of us would be very happy to see the old brother pass on, because he’s been a disturbing factor to the whole community.

He runs with that grimly witty metaphor to explain why lots more hard work is needed:

Social systems have a great last-minute breathing power, and the guardians of the status quo are always on hand with their oxygen tents to keep the old order alive …

He sets these issues in the then global context of decolonization, citing the 1955 Bandung Conference that helped launch the Non-Aligned Movement:

Prime Minister Nkrumah, his finance minister N. K Gbedemah said to me: “Our sympathies are with the free world. There is something about America that we like, but we are making it clear in the U.N. and the other diplomatic circles that beautiful words and extensive handouts cannot be substitutes for the basic simple responsibility of giving freedom and justice to our colored brothers all over the United States.”

Dr. King concludes with a striking call for dignity in the means used to win the battle against racial injustice:

Let us be sure that our methods are thoroughly moral and Christian … I know it’s really hard when we think of the tragic midnight of injustice and oppression that we’ve had to live under so many years, but let us not become bitter.

Let us never indulge in hate campaigns, for we can’t solve the problem like that … the end my friends is reconciliation, the end is redemption.

This speech won storming applause. It reads so well now because its clear core arguments are advanced with uncompromisingly bold baroque language and imagery. But above all its sheer generosity of spirit shines through. Dr. King does not call for revenge or ‘safe spaces’. He does not sneer at the civilizational achievements of white people. He insists on emphasising the positive, to develop together what all decent people have in common. How lame and old-fashioned that sounds for today’s aggressive ‘social justice’. About the author: Charles Crawford CMG is a public speaking and negotiation expert. He worked for 28 years in the U.K. Diplomatic Service including three postings as British Ambassador to Sarajevo, Belgrade, and Warsaw before starting a private consulting career in communication technique. He is the author of Speeches for Leaders, available worldwide in Kindle format and in print in North America and the United Kingdom. Photo by Dave Newman Under CC.