Sources are split on what the working title was for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s most famous speech, but one thing's for certain: the speech wasn't christened "I Have a Dream" until after King gave it.
Some historians believe the rough draft was entitled "Normalcy – Never Again." Others claim it was called "Cashing a Canceled Check." Still others say it was "The American Dream." Whatever that first draft may've been called, King had been workshopping it for years; parts of his "I Have a Dream" speech dated back to sermons and speeches he began giving in 1957.
King's ideas about equality and justice continued to evolve, and for two years before King's "I Have a Dream" speech, he delivered a speech called "The American Dream" at conferences and elsewhere. Just like his speech in Washington, this earlier draft included King eagerly imagining the day
when all of God’s children… will be able to join hands and sing… Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
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