5 Reasons That Propelled the "I Have a Dream" Speech
Social Science/History | Registration opens 1/5/2026 12:00 AM MST (Arizona)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech has been hailed by many, as the greatest public discourse of the
20th century. The influential positive consequence of the speech moved people into action, including Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and the United States Congress to write and pass civil rights and voting rights laws for all Americans. It is not commonly known that Dr. King delivered various versions of the speech before the August 28, 1963 “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”. There were five reasons that lead to the arrival of that speech on the steps of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial which directed the purpose and profound effectiveness of that
oration which is being reverberated decades later. This presentation will reveal those five reasons and will conclude with a live recital of Dr. King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
Terry Yahweh
Yahweh, Terry - Is an honorably retired detective from the Phoenix Police Department after twenty-five years of public service. He served as a patrol officer and domestic violence and robbery investigations detective. He investigated armed robberies, carjackings, home invasions, extortions, kidnappings, bank robberies, felony shopliftings, human trafficking, a few homicide investigations, and other criminal investigations. He was a board member of the Phoenix Police Union and the longest-serving president of the Arizona Black Law Enforcement Employees (ABLE), a police and community association. He has a B.A. in Spanish linguistics from Arizona State University.