For the vast majority of people in the US, it was just another day, speech or no speech.ДЄsk.Dr. Boyle's talk, that the reaction / canonization wasn't immediate. Sorry that doesn't exactly answer your question, but I'd hazard a guess, based on Prof. King speak heard about his speech the next day through the paper (see rm999's awesome link), but some people didn't, and some people didn't care, and loads of people are still racist. There were people at picnics, people working, people doing the stuff that people do, and then there were a whole lot (~200,000 if you trust wikipedia) of people at an event in DC that we (in the general sense, but specific to US historians / history students) now consider formative for the Civil Rights movement (again, in the US). I went to a talk by Professor Kevin Boyle ( (historian)) - sorry for formatting - and he pointed out that, without Twitter and life blogging and whatnot, the day of what we now consider THE 'I have a dream' speech was just a day for most people. The only people in this country who are asked to be nonviolent are black people.Д®dit: I couldn't get the quote formatting to work the way I wanted so I just took them out. Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by peaceful means, well and good. I don't call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence It doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time, I am not against using violence in self-defense. It is legal and lawful to own a shotgun or a rifle. Here are a few of his quotes to illustrate his views:Д¬oncerning nonviolence: It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself, when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks. Too often I feel though, Malcolm gets characterized by mainstream media (not saying any of the users here believe this) as completely militant in a 'kill-whitey' sense, which is something he never was. Yes, he was certainly more militant than King, but King was anti-any sort of militancy. In December of that year, Time Magazine chose King as its 'Man of the Year.' Soon afterwards the FBI began bugging King's office and home telephone lines, at Hoover's instigation but with Robert Kennedy's approval. We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security. In the light of King's powerful demagogic speech yesterday he stands head and shoulders above all other Negro leaders put together when it comes to influencing great masses of Negroes. The importance of the phrase 'I have a dream' was not immediately recognized.Д®dit: I just wanted to add a quote from the FBI response to King's speech on Augbecause it is so different from how we regard the speech today: However, the news that evening showed an excerpt from the first half of the speech. So the reaction was strong and immediate. The FBI considered King the most dangerous black man in America because of this speech and increased surveillance. CBS preempted its entire afternoon programming and it was a ratings success. The event was heavily covered by the media and King's speech was considered the highlight. Previous AMAs | Previous Roundtables FeaturesДЇeature posts are posted weekly. Please Subscribe to our Google Calendar for Upcoming AMAs and Events To nominate someone else as a Quality Contributor, message the mods. Our flaired users have detailed knowledge of their historical specialty and a proven record of excellent contributions to /r/AskHistorians. Please Read and Understand the Rules Before Contributing. Report Comments That Break Reddiquette or the Subreddit Rules. Serious On-Topic Comments Only: No Jokes, Anecdotes, Clutter, or other Digressions. Provide Primary and Secondary Sources If Asked. Write Original, In-Depth and Comprehensive Answers, Using Good Historical Practices.

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I have a dream speech pdf