Speaker

The speaker of “I Have a Dream” is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When he delivered the speech in 1963, he was already a well-known leading figure of the Civil Rights Movement in the US. 

The Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968) was a civil and social movement in the US  which promoted the end of segregation and discrimination against African Americans, through non-violent means.

King had led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and had tried in 1962 – without success— to fight against segregation in Albany, Georgia, something which he alludes to in his speech: “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” (ll. 117-119).

The speech was delivered at the 1963 March on Washington, which he helped organize: “I am happy to join with yo...