Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Historical Marker, Rocky Mount

This historical marker commemorates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1962. King was invited by a local church leader to support the Voters and Improvement League. At Booker T. Washington High School which is near this marker, Dr. King gave a speech that included the now-famous line "I have a dream." King would use the same refrain in several other speeches prior to his famous 1963 address at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC.

Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered many important speeches, and the most recognized of these is his address at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 which is often referred to as the “I Have a Dream” speech. King had used many of the same lines of that famous speech in previous speeches made primarily to African American supporters in places like Rocky Mount. In fact, the knowledge of some of King's supporters of this speech and they way it had been received in places like Rocky Mount is what led King to add the lines to his planned remarks at the 1963 March on Washington. Supporters seated behind King during the Lincoln Memorial address encouraged King to "tell them about your dream" and the civil rights leader responded by adding a similar version of the same line he had made to smaller gatherings to his now-famous 1963 speech.

Dr. King visited Rocky Mount after receiving an invitation from Reverend George Dudley of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church. Reverend Dudley wrote to Dr. King on behalf of the Voters and Improvement League. On November 27, 1962, Dr. King delivered a speech that included the refrain “I have a Dream” in the gymnasium of Booker T. Washington High School, Rocky Mount’s school for Black secondary school students during the time of segregation. King delivered his speech to around 1,800 people.

Audio of the speech Dr. King delivered in Rocky Mount was recently been re-discovered by North Carolina State University English professor Jason Miller on an old reel-to-reel tape that required restoration. In response to finding the reel, Miller is quoted, “I was scared to death it was going to crumble or fall apart or not be what it said it was because nobody had heard it.” [3] Miller sent it to George Blood Audio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to be restored. Miller then completed a transcript to the speech. The transcript can be found on his website which is linked at the bottom of this Clio entry.

[1] Kotch, Alex. Dr. King's 'I Have A Dream' speech was born in North Carolina, Facing South. August 12th 2015. Accessed December 7th 2020. https://www.facingsouth.org/2015/08/dr-kings-i-have-a-dream-speech-was-born-in-north-c.html

[2] Miller, W. Jason. Transcript of Dr. King's Rocky Mount Speech, King's First Dream. Accessed December 15th 2020. http://kingsfirstdream.com/transcript/.

[3] Shaffer, Josh. Shaking history’s dust off King’s 1962 Rocky Mount speech, News & Observer. August 10th 2015. Accessed December 8th 2020. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article30669171.html.