Establishing Self-Worth

An excerpt from MLK's "I Have A Dream Speech:" "Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. 

So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, 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 and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. [...]

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. [...]

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last."

Dr. King first are foremost lays the groundwork of value for the African American citizen who is striving for thier rights. He recognizes that in a country where black Americans have been systematically oppressed the first layer of restoration is one that is more emotional than physical. The Civil Rights movement is a movement that is engraved by its championing of an unshaking self-worth. Furthermore, Dr. King broadens the benefits of such a belief to the general population. The glories of Civil Rights are not exlusionary but one that unites all on equal plane.