A Brief Pause that Changed American History

Today America celebrates one of our history's most influential leaders, inspiring orators, and transformational agents of systemic change—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—and how a brief pause in his most famous speech changed the course of American history.

I have always admired Dr. King and his life's work—not only for the rightness of the cause he championed (racial equality), but for the majesty of his oratorical and rhetorical processes that influenced much-needed changes in American systems and culture.

As a professional speaker and writer myself, I continually observe, study, and am influenced by great speakers and writers. And when it comes to oratorical greatness, there are few persons throughout history that can match Dr. King. He was, simply stated, one of history's all-time greats at the pulpit.   

His famous "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Monument in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963, is quite possibly the greatest single speech in American (if not world) history—on par with Lincoln's masterpiece at Gettysburg delivered one-hundred years earlier. It was, therefore, appropriate that King delivered his august address in the shadows of Lincoln—that non-pareil orator that had preceded him in history by one century.  

Click HERE to read MLK's famous I Have a Dream speech.

Click HERE to watch MLK's famous I Have a Dream speech. 

I recently had the privilege of reading a fascinating article about Dr. King's legendary speech. The piece featured an interview of a close friend and colleague of mine—Christopher P. Neck, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Management at Arizona State University (ASU) and an MLK enthusiast—conducted by ASU. 

Christopher P. Neck, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Arizona State University

In the interview, Dr. Neck shares a fascinating and relatively unknown fact about the I Have a Dream speech. According to Neck's research, Dr. King did not originally plan on employing the phrase: "I Have a Dream" in his speech. Deemed too preachy and charismatic by his advisors, King's original intention was to keep the speech more formal and academic. And that is exactly how he began the speech. But then, midway through his address, King realized he was not connecting with his audience the way he desired.

And he paused.

Neck explains that during that fateful pause, a "close friend and confidante, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, instinctively shouted out: 'Tell 'em about the dream Martin.'" In that moment, Dr. King shifted his speaking style from formal and academic to charismatic and inspirational, and as Neck puts it: "The Rest is History."

Click HERE to read the full transcript of Dr. Neck's Interview with Arizona State University

As a lifelong student-practitioner of oratory, I totally "get" the difference between King's initial, academic approach as opposed to his conscious shift into a more charismatic delivery. It is, quite simply, the difference between an academic lecture and the stirring sermon of a religious preacher. While there is a place for the former style (the classroom), the latter approach is usually required to fire up a crowd and generate a charismatic response.  

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
One of America's Greatest Orators

As a highly educated Baptist Preacher, King was uniquely qualified to utilize both approaches as needed. Recognizing his speech was initially falling flatter than he wanted, he was, in a matter of seconds, able to make the necessary switch from professor to preacher—and the result was electric! 

As a doctorate-level quasi-scholar myself, I understand and appreciate the ability to speak with professorial precision in a dryer, classroom setting. But as a student of the charismatic preacher-orators, I also comprehend—and greatly appreciate—the ability to make the shift when necessary.  

While Dr. King was tragically assassinated more than a decade before I was born, I have had the opportunity to observe, study, and learn from a variety of modern-day preachers in an effort to cultivate that charismatic capacity myself. From T.D. Jakes to Charles and Andy Stanley, and from Joel Osteen and John Maxwell to Michael Yousef and Johnny Hunt, I have been blessed with opportunities to attend sermons from the most gifted evangelical preachers in the American South—and I am thankful for all these deeply enriching life experiences.    

Like Dr. King, these men—and other speakers like them—dream dreams and see visions about how they can make the world a better place. By developing and then utilizing their full intellectual, spiritual, and oratorical powers, they increase their influence and broaden their impact on their congregations, communities, and the world-at-large in meaningful ways.  

It is my own hope, dream, and vision to utilize my own God-given, ever-developing powers of reason, rhetoric, and oratory to positively and productively influence others in a never-ending upward spiral towards higher levels of personal FREEDOM and professional GROWTH through Self-Action Leadership at Freedom Focused.  

Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for your dream, and for dedicating your life to making that dream become a reality. The world is a better place because YOU lived in it. We can all learn a great deal from this remarkable leader and talented orator that we can, in-turn, apply to our own lives and careers as we seek to do our part to make our lives, homes, neighborhoods, schools, churches, communities, states, nation, and world a better, brighter, and more hopeful place to live.  

Click HERE to read the full transcript of Dr. Neck's Interview with Arizona State University.

—Dr. JJ

January 16, 2023  
Orlando, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 303rd Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 130th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

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