Martin Luther King "I have a dream". The Marches

"I have a dream"

Martin Luther King

Forty-five years ago today, Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech in Washington. His passionate and eloquent call for equality and tolerance inspired millions around the world. Find out more.

• Read the speech in full
• On this day in 1963
• BBC History: US civil rights

“Yes, we are on the move and no wave of racism can stop us. We are on the move now. The burning of our churches will not deter us. The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us. We are on the move now.”

1964 peace laureate Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these words after the end of the Selma to Montgomery marches.

The marches were one of the turning points in the civil rights movement and were organised to protest the blocking of Black Americans' right to vote. 

The first march began Sunday, March 7, 1965. A group of 600 marchers, led by Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee chairman John Lewis and Reverend Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, began the 54-mile (87 km) walk from Selma to Montgomery. The march proceeded until the protesters arrived at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. At the bridge, law enforcement officials attacked the marchers. More than sixty marchers were injured.

Cameras captured the scene of peaceful activists being violently attacked. This caused mass outrage and drew civil rights and religious leaders of all faiths to Selma in protest.

Two days later, Martin Luther King Jr. led around 2,000 marchers in another march. The march was again stopped at the same bridge.

On March 21, the third march began with King and activists setting out from Selma. The march took five days. By the time they reached Montgomery their number had grown to more than 25,000, before they  gathered to hear King and 1950 peace laureate Ralph Bunche speak.

Five months later, the U.S. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which aimed to correct the barriers preventing African Americans from using their right to vote. 

More about peace laureate Martin Luther King Jr: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/facts/