When Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech for the U.S. Democratic nomination on Thursday, it came on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legendary "I have a dream" speech on the Washington Mall.

A black scholar looks at some of what has been lost.

Michael Eric Dyson spoke with Democracy Now! on Aug. 29:

DYSON: ... But Martin Luther King, Jr. was saying some things at the beginning of that speech that have been obscured by the last, the peroration, the dream stuff. He says, “We have come to the nation’s capital to cash a check that has been returned to us ‘insufficient funds.’ I refuse to believe that the great vaults of democracy are empty.” He said, “We are marooned on a tiny island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.” All that’s obscured.

He says, “Negroes in the South can’t vote, and Negroes in the North believe they have nothing for which to vote.” He went on to say that police brutality was the reality, and the marvelous new militancy which has arisen certainly must not replace white supremacy with black supremacy, but he acknowledged those young people. All of that was in that speech. He said, “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of this nation.” I mean, this is tremendous language, but is obscured by the dream element of that speech.

But Martin Luther King, Jr. articulated a vision that had the possibility of transforming American society, because he was trying to make an argument for the vote and for civil rights. John Kennedy was relieved when Martin Luther King, Jr. went to the White House immediately after the speech, and he says, “I have a dream, too.” So he was very wary. You know, there’s a great book about John Kennedy and his relationship to civil rights called The Bystander. The title alone suggests that he did as little as possible, any minimal critical effort, to really facilitate civil rights in the White House.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to a part of Dr. King’s speech forty-five years ago, August 28, 1963.

REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: The marvelous new militancy, which has engulfed the Negro community, must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.


And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied, as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied, as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied, as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “for whites only.” We cannot be satisfied, as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No. No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied, until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Martin Luther King, forty-five years ago, like a mighty stream, taking on those issues.

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: Yeah, yeah. It’s remarkable. A lot of people forget that he dealt with those issues.

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Here's an April 4 post on the 40th anniversary of King's assassination.