http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUP_ISA030c
Creator: Martin Luther King, Speech made 28th of August 1963, Lincoln Memorial Washington DC.
Purpose: Call for racial equality and an end to discrimination.
Manifesto
Here’s some key excerpts from his speech:
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
“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.”
“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 a table of brotherhood.”
“With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”
“Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”
Sources
General Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream
Full speech transcript: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
Complete Speech Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk
Comment
MLK’s I Have a Dream speech is, in my view, the best example of a worldview manifesto for two significant reasons.
Firstly, it clearly presents a world the author wants to see – a dream. While it’s stated in the personal ‘I’ it’s very inclusive in its words.
Secondly, it’s so vivid and precise in it’s details. For instance, “to sit down together at a table of brotherhood” is both literal (sit down together) and metaphorical (at a table of brotherhood).
One of the greatest manifesto’s ever written.