A dream come true

This song (“I have a dream”) has an anti-racist message and makes an allusion to the speech of Martin Luther King in 1963. In the speech is discussed the need for union and harmonious coexistence between the African American race and the white race. This event was a turning point in the history of the American Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King spread his word in front of an audience of over two hundred thousand people supporting the cause. This is considered one of the greatest, most emotional and exciting speeches in the history of mankind.

Martin Luther King was a Protestant pastor and political activist. He became one of the leaders of the civil rights movement of blacks in the United States and worldwide, with a campaign of non-violence and love towards our fellow creatures.

He marked many generations (even ours) and he marked a great cause too. His influence in people’s mind and way of life was so big that he become the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, shortly before his assassination (in 1968). He was murdered by a racist defender of the apartheid named James Earl Ray. But, luckily, his death was not in vain and his dream is very close to become real because society, not only in the United States but also in most countries of the world, is very open to all kinds of races and cultures and a perfect example of this multicultural attitude is the fact that the United States recently promoted their first African American President, Barack Obama.

Martin Luther King is also known by Martin Luther “the King” because of his great positive influence on the evolution of the civil rights and because he gave voice to a class of people that in the most part of it had very little knowledge, little money, little power of expression and all of them were victims of injustice and discrimination.

This song was written in 2006 because of the current recent events regarding USA's political life, namely, the candidature of Barack Obama to the American presidency that brought the racism subject back into the media.

In the first part, the lyrics is about the hard life (in general) of the black people of the ghetto and the discrimination they suffer. In the last part, the lyrics prospects a better life to all these people and a better society as a consequence of the respect for the civil rights, mainly freedom and equality. As we can see, the chorus has a very positive message (it says that one day “we – the people – gonna work it out”) and that’s the main idea of the song, change the present to have a better future.

Text written by the authors of the Blog

Cristiana & Margarida