Dr. King's most famous speech draws heavily on his theological education and his superior command of the art of rhetoric. The speech was given in front of the Lincoln Memorial, not coincidentally, and King begins by alluding to Lincoln, the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, which ended slavery in the rebellious Southern states. From there, he moves on to the metaphor of the "check" of freedom, and extends it by stating that the check has been returned due to insufficient funds. He discusses the civil rights movement that has brought him, and the enormous listening crowd, to this point, and as the speech approaches its conclusion, he increasingly speaks with the fervor and intonation of the engaging preacher that he was, using the repetition of phrases such as "We will not be satisfied" and "I have a dream," and "Let freedom ring," to emphasize his ideas and create a swelling wave of emotion in the audience. A paraphrasing of, and then direct quotation from a passage from the book of Isaiah reminds us again of King's religious training, as well as the idea that freedom is not an American dream, but a human right.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
King's final lines allude to a Negro spiritual as he comes back to his introductory idea, that although blacks were freed of slavery in 1865, they have not actually ever been a free people.
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