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Kristin Hilton

Dr. Cassel

ENG 1201 Online

5 February 2017

Obama, Barak. The Fiftieth Anniversary of the March on Washington. Lincoln Memorial. 28

August 2013. Speech.

On the twenty-eighth day of August, 2013, Barack Obama, then President of the United

Sates of America, stood at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther

King stood fifty years before to deliver his now famous I Have a Dream speech. President

Obama commemorated the March on Washington with a speech of his own during the Let

Freedom Ring ceremony that was equally inspiring and full of hope. President Obama spoke to

the many faces and challenges of the day, just as Dr. King had a half century before. He spoke of

the significant progress we, as a nation, have made toward equality for African Americans as

well as for womens rights and rights for LGBQT persons, for immigrants and for people of all

faiths and religious backgrounds but reminds us that our work and our progress toward equality

for everyone is not yet done. He spoke of how Dr. Kings Dream has yet to be fully realized, of

the determination that is required to revive the momentum necessary to exact change. President

Obama reminded us that we have become too complacent about our own fate; that we must not

allow government officials and those persons with lesser intentions or selfish motivation to

thwart the progress of the people of this nation. He spoke of the importance of quality education

and healthcare for everyone, for decent earning wages for everyone willing to work, of a nation

of people watching out for one another and building a better future for ourselves and for our
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children, together. During Dr Kings I Have a Dream speech at the March on Washington in

1963, Dr. King said, We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and

discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.

President Obama spoke of a backward slide, we as a nation have taken, as we have allowed

hatred and bigotry and rioting to slow our progress toward justice and equality for all people. He

eloquently reminds us that only we, as one people, working together, can truly make this the

greatest nation on earth.