The Facebook page of the Faculty of Social Administration, Thammasat University has announced that all TU students aged from 18 to 23 are cordially invited to enter a contest sponsored by the U.S. Embassy Bangkok to celebrate Black History Month.
Until 25 February, participants in the I Have a Dream” Speech Contest for Thai citizens
- should submit a video clip of themselves speaking a specific excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in English or in Thai.
- Upload the video to YouTube, make it public, and include the hashtag #IHaveADreamThailand2021
- Submit the link and your information at http://bit.ly/Ihaveadream2021
- The winner with the best speech gets a free 11-inch iPad Pro with 256GB!
Winner will be announced on 4 March 2021
Before participating in the competition, please read the rules and regulations here.
The Thammasat University Library collection includes a number of books about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his famous speech, I Have a Dream, including what made the speech so special and influential.
I Have a Dream is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on 28 August 1963. In it, he called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the speech was a defining moment of the civil rights movement and among the most iconic speeches in American history.
Beginning with a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared millions of slaves free in 1863, King said “one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free”. Toward the end of the speech, King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred. The words from the speech that should be recorded to enter the contest follow:
English version of the speech to be read by all contest entrants:
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
For the Thai language version that must be read to enter the contest, see the US Department of State and US Embassy in Thailand websites.
Students are encouraged to be creative with their videos:
Video Editing: Allows the contestants to use all types of common video editing techniques. Any program or format can be used, but the files must be compressed and transmitted in a manner accepted by YouTube only.
Eligible contestants: Contestants must be between 18-23 years old on the contest date. Contestants must be of Thai nationality. And live in Thailand.
Historical influence
According to U.S. Representative John Lewis, who also spoke that day during the March on Washington as the president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee:
Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations.
After the speech and the march, in 1964 Dr. King became the youngest man ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
As King waved goodbye to the audience, George Raveling, volunteering as a security guard at the event, asked King if he could have the original typewritten manuscript of the speech. Raveling, a college basketball player, was on the podium with King at that moment. Dr. King gave it to him. In 2013, Raveling still owned the original copy, for which he has been offered three million dollars US, but he has said he does not intend to sell it.
Here is some more of Dr. King’s speech, which is not part of the contest. The speech quotes texts from the Bible and traditional American songs:
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)