Proposal

The Changed Dream 

Martin Luther King Jr., is most well-known for his I Have a Dream speech. This speech was given on August 28th, 1963, Dr. King gave this speech in an attempt to call for equality and freedom for black American citizens. During this time the Civil Rights movement was at large. Comparing 1963 to 2020, there are similarities, but there’s a movement in each year that sticks out the most. The Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, both of these are striving to achieve one thing, equality.

 During the BLM movement a popular rapper, Lil Baby, came out with a song called, “The Bigger Picture.” The song gives a black man's point of view of the discriminatory actions that are occurring in our society. Lil Baby says, “our people died for us to be free, f*ck do you mean this was a dream (3:36).” Freedom and equality has been a dream in the black culture for centuries. Most recently the acts of inequality appear alongside police brutality. One of the main reasons the BLM movement began was because of a man named George Floyd. Floyd was a victim of police brutality and was sadly killed during his arrest because a police officer would not get off of his throat even when he was screaming, “I can’t breathe.” After this incident became publicized citizens wanted justice for George Flolyd because the officers were not put on trial at first until the protests began. People marched together in the streets shouting, “I can’t breathe” these peaceful protests quickly turned violent due to the fact that police officers were shooting innocent people with rubber bullets causing some to be hospitalized. This caused an uproar in society, those who were for the BLM continued to protest.

Black and white people stood hand-in-hand marching down the streets in many different cities trying to make a change. As a result of these protests, the officers that were involved in the death of George Floyd were put on trial. Martin Luther King Jr. had the dream to end inequality and to have people stand together. Now, the dream has changed to ending police brutality and the systemic racism towards black people.