At eight o'clock on the morning of August 28, with only fifty people on the monument gr
ounds, it appeared that the event would be smaller than anticipated. However, by ten o'clock there was a huge crowd of people. By the end of the day, 250,000 people had gathered. Participants included blacks, whites, actors, and about three hundred Congressional representatives.
CBS provided continuous televised coverage of the march. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began his "I Have a Dream" speech, NBC and ABC interrupted their programming to bring it live to viewers. King had originally planned to deliver a different speech, but in the middle of his planned address, he departed from his text. Although it was a speech he had given on many other occasions, to those who listened it was a powerful indictment of the injustices perpetuated against African Americans.
“I have a dream,” proclaimed King, “that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Ultimately, proclaimed King at the end of his speech, he believed that one day blacks and whites would come together and sing the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
ounds, it appeared that the event would be smaller than anticipated. However, by ten o'clock there was a huge crowd of people. By the end of the day, 250,000 people had gathered. Participants included blacks, whites, actors, and about three hundred Congressional representatives.CBS provided continuous televised coverage of the march. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began his "I Have a Dream" speech, NBC and ABC interrupted their programming to bring it live to viewers. King had originally planned to deliver a different speech, but in the middle of his planned address, he departed from his text. Although it was a speech he had given on many other occasions, to those who listened it was a powerful indictment of the injustices perpetuated against African Americans.
“I have a dream,” proclaimed King, “that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Ultimately, proclaimed King at the end of his speech, he believed that one day blacks and whites would come together and sing the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
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