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Angus King represents Maine in the U.S. Senate.
You never wake up with a plan to witness history, nor do you usually realize that you are in the midst of history being made in the moment. But 60 years ago this week, as I joined hundreds of thousands listening to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, there was a sense we had all just witnessed something important, something that would change our country for the better.
On that day, King’s words touched the conscience of America. He spoke to our nation’s promise of “liberty and justice for all” and the ambitious goal of equality upon which our country was founded.
The night before the march — after taking a couple of days off from work for a local moving van company — I slept on the floor of a downtown Washington, D.C., church, in order to be within walking distance of the mall like the thousands of others who had come by rail, by bus, by car — and one even roller-skating from Chicago. When I woke up that morning, streams of people started to flow into the streets. The crowd started as small trickles from the side streets, joining together in larger and larger streams, moving toward the main arteries of Washington, until a river of humanity washed across the mall.
The crowd was hopeful and shared a unity of purpose: the hunger to achieve the promise of America, the radical idea that all men and women are created equal. As the huge crowd moved toward the Lincoln Memorial, I was lifted higher, literally. A young Black man, watching from a tree limb above me, saw me craning my neck, straining to see the proceedings. He asked if I wanted a better view, gave me a hand up, and moments later I was sitting alongside him in that sturdy tree — two young men, strangers to each other, taking in the power of the moment.
King began with prepared remarks focused on the metaphor of Black America seeking to cash a check that had come due. But a few moments into his speech, his friend Mahalia Jackson began encouraging him to “tell them about the dream, Martin; tell them about the dream.” That’s when history was made.
King lifted his eyes from his prepared remarks and spoke from the heart with clarity and passion. He spoke about his dream of an America where his grandchildren would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. His voice and his work inspired those of us there and generations afterwards to recommit themselves to realize that dream.
As it was once said of Winston Churchill, King on that day mobilized the English language and marched it into war, and in the process, he caught the conscience of a nation. From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, these aspirations were broadcast far and wide and our world was changed.
King famously said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. He was right, of course — but that only happens if good people stand up, and fight to extend the American dream to all of our people. Sixty years later, as we proceed together, we must summon his wisdom and his spirit as Americans of all backgrounds aspire to a more perfect union, one that is true to the fundamental promise of America — liberty and justice for all.
