Fifty years ago, on August 28, 1963 a historical gathering took

place in Washington DC.

240,000 came to the Lincoln Memorial to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. talk about jobs, equality, and the unjust

or unfair Jim Crow Laws.

• Many people spoke that day, but when King stood up people were inspired by his words. These powerful words were from his most famous speech. What is the name of the speech?

“I Have a Dream”

“Five score years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the

Emancipation Proclamation.” “I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted

in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’“

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words rang TRUE to many Americans. He helped people to realize that people

needed to talk about CHANGE …equality for everyone.• It was not just King’s words and gifted

speaking skills that inspired people. It was that he wanted to protest without violence. He wanted to CHANGE unjust laws through non-violence. Who inspired Martin Luther King to SPEAK THE TRUTH FOR CHANGE through non-violence?

Mahatma Gandhi

Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” is not the only important writing that helped to CHANGE America. The March on Washington

event was symbolically staged in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

• During the American Civil War 1861-1865, Abraham Lincoln implemented an Executive Order that was named_____________.

Lincoln’s Executive Order, The Emancipation Proclamation, was signed on January 1, 1863. It stated that slaves in non-Union states

would be freed and were encouraged to join the Union forces.

Lincoln knew that the Emancipation Proclamation did not free all of the slaves, yet it was the first

step towards CHANGE AND EQUALITY.

87 years before Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, Thomas Jefferson wrote a different

document that brought to light a meaning of freedom and equality that had not yet been realized by the

common man.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident

that all men are created equal…”words written by Thomas Jefferson and later revised by others such as Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.

• Name the document from which this quote is taken.

The Declaration of Independence

• While most Americans remember the Preamble that states that “all men are created equal”, most forget that is was a __________ written to King George III of England.

• What was the purpose of this writing?

The Declaration of Independence was a letter of complaint which told King George that the

colonies and their delegates did not feel he was helping the English colonists in North America. The letter actually states several reasons why

the colonist were upset with the king.

The Declaration of Independence was and still is one of our country’s most treasured documents. It began a CHANGE that moved a people to stand

united for LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

What change will you stand for?

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do.” M. Gandhi