![when did mlk give his i have a dream speech when did mlk give his i have a dream speech](https://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2020/06/GettyImages-2418755.jpg)
Board of Education, declaring separate public schools for Black and white students to be unconstitutional, in May 1954, but the federal government had done very little to enforce Brown’s integration mandate or to pass any meaningful civil rights laws. Supreme Court had issued its historic decision in Brown v. And, although far less well-known than his “I Have a Dream” address, the “ Give Us the Ballot” speech that King gave was no less eloquent, and perhaps even more consequential. King was the headline speaker at what was billed as the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, a hastily organized religious gathering meant to test the waters of large-scale public civil rights demonstrations - and to give the charismatic preacher his first national audience. But on this particular day in May 1957, King did not have a dream to communicate but a demand to America’s leaders in Washington: Give us the ballot. On the same spot in Washington, D.C., six years later, King would permanently write his name in the annals of American history. This was not the speech you’re thinking of. But, for the most part, a sea of silence over the National Mall - reverential silence.
![when did mlk give his i have a dream speech when did mlk give his i have a dream speech](https://arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-advancelocal.s3.amazonaws.com/public/LQ4K5UTNOFHZJNKB3RC7WG2F2U.jpg)
“We must meet physical force with soul force.” A slightly bigger chorus of amens and affirmation. “We must meet hate with love,” he implored his audience in a lofty baritone. As thousands gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial with anticipation, a young Southern reverend named Martin Luther King Jr.