A step toward freedom Jan 18, 2021

A step toward freedom

This inscription marks the spot on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, where civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. stood while delivering his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. It was August 28, 1963, and King was addressing a quarter-million people spread across the National Mall during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. King referred to written notes for most of the speech, but as he neared the end of his prepared remarks, he heard gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was standing nearby, shout out, "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" King responded by partly improvising the rest of his message in a soaring, sermon-like delivery, punctuating his ideas repeatedly with that single phrase, "I have a dream." King"s dream for racial justice, so eloquently shared that day, would resonate through the crowd and across the nation, bringing passionate new energy to the civil rights movement. It still resonates today.

© Pgiam/Getty Images

palette

Today in History

Jan 18, 2018Entoloma hochstetteri mushroom at Lake Mahinapua, New Zealand
Jan 18, 2019An opulent backdrop for a historic event
Jan 18, 2020Sands of time
Jan 18, 2022Winnie-the-Pooh Day
Jan 18, 2023White Sands National Park turns 90
Jan 18, 2024Pont Alexandre III, Paris, France
Jan 18, 2025Dunes at White Sands National Park, New Mexico
Jan 18, 2026White Sands National Park, New Mexico

More Desktop Wallpapers:

May 6, 2026Thunderstorm above the plains, Bulgaria
Mar 2, 2023Negratín Reservoir, Granada, Spain
Dec 26, 2020Happy Boxing Day!
Jul 7, 2020Mercury in retrograde
Jan 10, 2020League of Nations, 100 years later
Jan 25, 2025Porto, Portugal
May 19, 2022Glass footbridge in Zhangjiajie, China
Oct 22, 2025The Belogradchik Rocks in Bulgaria
Jul 2, 2023Its Halfway Day!
Dec 6, 2021Computer Science EDU Week
May 8, 2026World Donkey Day
Mar 4, 2025Happy Fat Tuesday!
Oct 22, 2019Bobbing for crab apples
Dec 29, 2020Where the glow of the holidays lingers
Feb 6, 2022Oymyakon, Russia
Jan 29, 2019A winter’s holiday ends
Dec 8, 2022The Cathedral of Florence, Italy
Apr 16, 2021 A theatrical dream
Mar 6, 2026The Wave, Vejle, Denmark
Jul 23, 2026Pink dahlia flower
Jan 14, 2018Sanday Island and the North Sea, Scotland
Feb 8, 2024Mount Hood, Oregon
Jul 9, 2021A center of antiquity on the Mediterranean
Sep 28, 2021The snows of Fuji
Aug 6, 2021Looking down upon Edinburgh
Oct 22, 2020Moving as one
Nov 6, 2022New York City Marathon
Jul 31, 2022Noctilucent clouds
Oct 22, 2023Astoria-Megler Bridge, Oregon
Feb 25, 2023Bryce Canyon National Park turns 100