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1963
Speech
Civil Rights Era
"I Have a Dream"
Martin Luther King Jr., March on Washington
"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir."
About this source
Delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963. King framed the civil rights movement as a demand that America honor the 'promissory note' written in the Declaration of Independence.
Why it matters for the project
King casts the Declaration as a check America has refused to cash — the most famous modern invocation of its promise.