THE DREAM : MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.  THE SPEECH THAT INSPIRED A NATION
Author: Drew D Hansen
Publisher: Ecco; 1st edition (July 1, 2003)


| ISBN: 0060084766 | 304 pages | PDF |

When Martin Luther King, Jr., stepped up to the microphone on August 28, 1963, 250,000 people filled the park in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Millions more were watching on television, as the networks covered the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom live on their evening news broadcasts. King looked out and thanked the crowd before beginning to read his prepared text. Other speakers of the day were limited to five minutes, but King was the last on the podium and the person that everyone had waited to hear. The crowd cheered and called for more as King read. After about ten minutes, he left the text and began preaching in the manner of the Baptist minister that he was. Among his words were “I have a dream.”

Drew D. Hansen notes that the FBI responded to King's speech with this disturbing report: "We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation."


Drew D. Hansen is the author of The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired A Nation (Ecco, 2003). He has appeared as a guest on ABC's World News Tonight, the CBS Early Show, CSPAN, CNN, and NPR. He has given readings and guest lectures about Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement to audiences around the country, ranging from a lesson on Dr. King to kindergarten classes in Houston to a nationally televised reading at the Los Angeles Public Library.

His editorials have appeared in USA TODAY and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and his academic writings have appeared in the Yale Law Journal and the Wayne Law Review.

He graduated from Harvard University and Yale Law School and studied theology at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He practices law in Seattle and lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington.