i have a dream is a 17-minutes public speech by martin luther king jr delivered on august 28 1963 in which he called for an end of racism in the united states the speech delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the lincoln memorial during the march on washington for jobs and freedom was a defining moment of the american civil rights movement king begins his speech by invoking the emancipation proclamation which freed millions of slaves in1863 but says that one hundred years later the nergo still is not free