Nearly a hundred years had passed since the Emancipation Proclamation, yet America's black citizens remained trapped in a legal morass of prejudice and codified bias. The right to vote, to work, to receive an education, to simply "be" in certain spaces - all were points of contention. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man with powerful gifts, born for "such a time" as the Civil Rights Era. If your students don't know why we honor MLK, Jr. with a holiday - today is the perfect day to remedy that!
Two steps:
First - have they heard the "I Have a Dream" speech? It is only 17 minutes long - watch it on full-screen, turn up the volume and really listen.
Two steps:
First - have they heard the "I Have a Dream" speech? It is only 17 minutes long - watch it on full-screen, turn up the volume and really listen.
Secondly - especially for your high school students - have they ever really THOUGHT about the words of his speech? Of how he crafted and carefully expressed every idea with the goal of impacting people's hearts and minds forever? I have two free files for you: A student printout of the speech, with numbered paragraphs to help you read it closely and discuss it, and a teacher's key close reading I created for my American Lit class students. I encourage you to go over this speech - if not today, this week; if not this week, this month. We honor the man when we keep his dream alive!
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Not all rigor is mortis!
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