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Let Freedom Ring


Mississippi Freedom Marcher, Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on this day in 1963.

A charismatic orator who advocated African-American civil rights, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) is perhaps best known for his remarks on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

After reading the first part of his speech, the eloquent leader began to extemporize with the words "I have a dream today . . . ," imagining a time when blacks and whites could work, play, and pray together. Quoting a line from "My Country Tis of Thee," he called on the nation to "let freedom ring." To this day, his stirring speech is synonymous with that rally.

Photographer Roy DeCarava captured the intensity of that historic event in today's artwork. Revealing life's intimate spaces without invading them, DeCarava uses contrasting lights and darks in his rendering of the urban African American experience. DeCarava maintains, "It's almost like you are redefining a situation, saying that this is more than what it is."

Source: Regenia A. Perry. Free within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art in Association with Pomegranate Art Books, 1992).

Pictured: Roy DeCarava, born 1919, Mississippi Freedom Marcher, Washington, DC, 1963/printed 1982, gelatin silver print on paper, 10 7/8 x 13 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Henry L. Milmore.