The words "I have a dream" were not originally part of the historic speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963, according to speechwriter Clarence Jones, who composed this compelling history of an event he helped shape almost half a century ago.
Jones, an attorney and a gifted writer, stood just a few feet away from King as he started delivering a speech that Jones helped write and then, at the urging of gospel singer Mehalia Jackson, suddenly launched into an extemporaneous soliloquy using a phrase he'd used previously but never so effectively" "I have a dream."
"Then I watched Martin push the text of his prepared remarks to one side of the lectern," Jones recalls. "He shifted gears in a heartbeat, abandoning whatever final version of the balance of the text he'd prepared late the previous night, turning away from whatever notes he'd scrawled in the margins... Then, honoring Mahalia's request, Martin spoke those words that in retrospect feel destined to ring out that day: I have a dream..."
